An important advance in the effort to make grant programs more evidence focused has been the launch of “tiered-evidence” or “innovation fund” grant designs in the federal government. They focus resources on practices with strong evidence, while also promoting innovation. One of the first tiered-evidence grant programs to launch, in 2010, was the Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program. It is designed to reduce teen pregnancy through the replication of evidence-based program models and through research and demonstration projects.
To get an overview of the TPP — with insights for public leaders who want to strengthen the use of evidence in other grant programs — we’re joined by Evelyn Kappeler. She is the Director of the Office of Adolescent Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where she oversees the $110 million TPP.
Web extra: Evelyn Kappeler discusses the systematic review process the TPP uses to identify evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention approaches [click here] and also how the program measures grantees’ fidelity to the program models they are implementing [click here].