Background:
Project HOPE (Helping Oakland Prevent Pregnancy via Education) is sponsored by the Alameda County Public Health Department's Maternal, Paternal, Child and Adolescent Health Section. It is funded by a Community Challenge Grant from the California Department of Health Services' Office of Family Planning. Project HOPE offers a multi-faceted approach to teenage pregnancy prevention.

Objectives:
To identify a strategy for providing adolescents/youth with preconception health information and linking them to preconception care services.

Methods:
Project HOPE, through a collaborative of agencies, provides a range of services that focus on balanced and age-appropriate family-life education, contraceptive education, community mobilization and awareness, youth development, mentoring, training, and support. The strategies used by Project HOPE are based on evidence-based practices.
Age-appropriate family life education sessions aim for a balanced realistic program that covers a broad range of topics including health, sexuality, responsible sexual behavior, contraception, dating relationships, pregnancy, HIV, STDs, refusal skills, and sexual orientation. In-school pregnancy prevention education sessions are provided to 4th-12th grade students.
Project HOPE especially targets middle and highs school students that have a school-based health center at their school. Its objective is that via the prevention education classes, students will be encouraged to access family planning services. Students are also referred to health providers that provide Family Planning Access, Care, and Treatment (PACT) clinical services.
Information, education, support and referrals are provided to parents, providers of community and youth services as well as to teens. Intervention sites include public schools, family and social service agencies, correctional institutions, public health agencies, recreation facilities and health clinics.
Mentoring is provided to at-risk high schools students, youth development (family life education workshops) are provided to girls in conjunction with recreational activities, teen parents are trained to speak on the challenges of parenting and provide workshops to parents and guardians of adolescents.

Results:
Project HOPE has reached 2,246 youth.

Conclusion and implications for practice:
Programs such as Project HOPE provide a mechanism to reach youth to encourage the development of a reproductive life plan, to promote the importance of preconception health behaviors, and to promote the utilization of preconception care services.