About Avoidance Education Nationally

The Title V State Sexual Risk Avoidance Education Grant Program (SRAE), administered by the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF), awarded $52,118,958 million to 39 states and territories in mandatory funds from Section 510 of the Social Security Act (Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018) in FY 2019 for abstinence education, and where appropriate, mentoring, counseling and adult supervision to promote abstinence from sexual activity.

The purpose of the Sexual Risk Avoidance Education Grant Program (SRAE) is to fund projects to implement sexual risk avoidance education that teaches participants how to voluntarily refrain from non-marital sexual activity. SRAE Programs also teach the benefits associated with self-regulation, success sequencing for poverty prevention, healthy relationships, goal setting, and resisting sexual coercion, dating violence, and other youth risk behaviors such as underage drinking or illicit drug use without normalizing teen sexual activity.

Grantees use evidenced-based and informed approaches and/or effective strategies to educate youth on how to avoid risks that could lead to non-marital sexual activity. SRAE projects are implemented using a Positive Youth Development (PYD) framework as part of risk avoidance strategies, to help participants build healthy life skills, develop individual protective factors that reduce risks, empower youth to make healthy decisions, and provide tools and resources to prevent, pregnancy and STI. Linking program participants to services provided by local community partners that support the safety and well-being of youth is also a key component to the program.