Federal Program Guidelines
Federal CBAE Guidelines
CBAE (Community Based Abstinence Education) grants were provided by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Family and youth Services Bureau to provide education to youth aged 12-18 adhering to the guidelines cited below. The guidelines were established during the administration of President Bush and they were abandoned shortly after President Obama took office.
Not only were CBAE grants no longer to be offered, but many organizations that had received multi-year awards were de-funded midstream. Care Net Pregnancy Center was one of 166 other organizations nationwide that lost three years of funding. Read more on this issue at the National Abstinence Education Association website.The funding opportunities that replaced the CBAE grants have become known as the TPP or Teen Pregnancy Prevention grants.
The objectives of the TPP grants are to lower the teen pregnancy rate through promotion of birth control, and lower the teen birthrate by steering pregnant teens to abortion clinics.
This is clearly incompatible with our faith and principles. We look back on our CBAE grant as an amazing gift from God – and a great start to our program. We trust that God will provide for the continuation of Step Up Now in excellence.
We post this as an historical perspective to underscore the strict guidelines under which we have operated Step Up Now. The following is an excerpt from the request for proposal for the grant awarded to Care Net Pregnancy Center of the Tanana Valley for the implementation of the program Step Up Now to Healthy Relationships on September 30, 2008:
Legislative Authority
The Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) program is authorized by Title XI, Section 1110 of the Social Security Act.
Programs funded through the CBAE program must promote abstinence education as defined by Section 510(b)(2) of Title V of the Social Security Act set forth below. Programs that utilize this definition promote abstinence-until-marriage education. Sex education programs that promote the use of contraceptives are not eligible for funding under this announcement.
Pursuant to Section 510(b)(2) of Title V of the Social Security Act, the term “abstinence education,” for purposes of this program means an educational or motivational program that:
(A) Has as its exclusive purpose, teaching the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity;
(B) Teaches abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage as the expected standard for all school age children;
(C) Teaches that abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and other associated health problems;
(D) Teaches that a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of human sexual activity;
(E) Teaches that sexual activity outside of the context of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects;
(F) Teaches that bearing children out-of-wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the child, the child’s parents, and society;
(G) Teaches young people how to reject sexual advances and how alcohol and drug use increases vulnerability to sexual advances; and
(H) Teaches the importance of attaining self-sufficiency before engaging in sexual activity.
