The Hewlett Foundation makes a number of grants in the San Francisco Bay Area and California’s Central Valley in order to reduce teen pregnancy particularly in disadvantaged communities.  These local grants not only serve the local community, but also provide valuable insights on what programs work on the ground.  These lessons inform the Foundation's grants elsewhere in California, the U.S. and around the world. 

The local teen pregnancy prevention strategy has three elements:

• expand or improve teen pregnancy prevention services
• focus on teen pregnancy hot spots and key populations
• provide grants that enable grantees to become more financially sustainable

The core of the strategy is to expand and improve direct services for teen pregnancy prevention in the Bay Area and Central Valley particularly for low income youth.  The grant supporting the Bayview Hunters Point Healing Arts Center is an example of services being expanded within a teen pregnancy hot spot, whereas the grant supporting the New Generations Health Center is focused on improving services to disadvantaged youth.  The specific improvement is providing follow-up phone calls to check in with clients and answer their questions and monitoring whether these calls help clients more consistently use contraception and ultimately avoid teen pregnancy. 

One in three girls gets pregnant in
the U.S. by age 20.

California's Central Valley has the state's highest teen pregnancy rates and is projected to have dramatic growth including a doubling of the number of teens over the next 50 years. The Hewlett Foundation's support for the Fresno Regional Foundation is strengthening the ability of this growing Central Valley community foundation to make local grants for teen pregnancy prevention. 

The final element of the strategy is to structure the grants in way that helps grantees become more financially sustainable and enhances their overall ability to have impact.  For example:

• Supporting development and implementation of best practices
• Favoring flexible general operating support to strengthen core functions. 
• Seeking collaboration with other donors to diversify grantees funding sources

Unsolicited proposals are not accepted.