Pono Choices designated a Maternal & Child Health best practice by the national Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs

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In January 2019 Pono Choices was designated a Maternal & Child Health best practice by the national Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP).

This award is the result of a 2010-2016 collaborative process used to (1) locally develop a medically accurate and culturally responsive teen pregnancy and STI prevention program for middle school youth and (2) study the effectiveness of the program in public and charter schools across the state.

UH co-developed Pono Choices with Planned Parenthood and ALU LIKE. Guiding the development process was an advisory committee that included representation from the Hawaii Department of Education, the Hawaii Department of Health, and Hawaii Youth Services Network. The external evaluation of the Pono Choices program was led by IMPAQ International.

A big mahalo goes out to the local public and charter schools that participated in the 2012-2015 Pono Choices research study. With participation and support from principals and teachers, and consent from parents and students, Pono Choices was successfully developed, field tested, and tested on a large scale here in Hawaii.

Read AMCHP award notice – PDF Format