President Donald Trump’s administration has rescinded more than $2 million of grant funding intended for a Vermont nonprofit that is working to prevent teen pregnancy — decimating the group’s finances, according to one of its directors.
The Charlotte-based Youth Catalytics has provided training and research to youth services organizations around the country for 35 years. During Barack Obama’s presidency, the group won a five-year federal grant for pregnancy prevention work that began in 2016 with $564,000 in funding. Earlier this month, the Office of Adolescent Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services informed the organization that it had terminated the remaining four years of the grant — a loss of about $2.25 million.
“Due to changes in program priorities, it has been determined that it is in the best interest of the federal government to no longer continue funding for the Providing Capacity Building Assistance to OAH Teen Pregnancy Prevention Grantees program,” the July 5 letter read.
The news came out of the blue, said Meagan Downey, Youth Catalytics’ director of special projects. “I’m on my honeymoon in Jamaica, and, on July 5, I get this notice that our funding was being terminated June 30, 2017,” she said.
“We were given no reason,” Downey went on. “The only change that we know of that has occurred are the appointments of some people who have led efforts to discredit and eliminate these programs.”
The cut to the local organization is part of a more sweeping rescission, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting, which found that 81 institutions nationwide will lose a total of more than $200 million in teen pregnancy prevention grants.
Trump has appointed several Health and Human Services officials who have endorsed an abstinence-only approach to pregnancy prevention and resisted sex education that includes birth control counseling. Among the appointees is Valerie Huber, chief of staff to the assistant secretary for health. That office has not responded to a request for comment.
Youth Catalytics, which reported about $1 million in revenue on its 2015 tax filing, was one of five groups whose grants were pulled at the start of July; most organizations were given one more year of funding, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting.*
Through the now-revoked federal grant, the Vermont organization helped entities that run pregnancy prevention programs for vulnerable youth to improve their communications with teens, parents and other stakeholders. They also helped groups with similar missions share their work with one another.
“We’ve been reeling [and] trying to figure out what our rights are, in terms of questioning this decision,” said Downey. Her organization’s lawyer sent a letter Thursday to the Department of Health and Human Services disputing the legality of revoking of the grant solely on the basis of a “change in program priorities.”
In the meantime? “Our leadership and our board is trying to do everything they can to keep staff on as long as they can,” said Downey.
Within the next couple months, staff salaries will be reduced “across the board,” she noted. The money helped pay 85 percent of her own salary.
*Correction, July 21, 2017: An earlier version of this story inaccurately described Youth Catalytics’ work and misstated the number of organizations losing funding.
Related Stories
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
If that’s your opinion, then you’re sadly mistaken. Teen pregnancy, abortion and live births are at historic lows. If Planned Parenthood and other programs that prevent teen pregnancy — programs that btw don’t take a single approach but many approaches — somehow hurt young people, why would this be the case? Get your facts straight. Teens aren’t having more sex, or having sex earlier, than they were 20 years ago. These programs aren’t bad for kids, they’re GOOD for kids, and for society. Having kids too early is a sure route to poverty for mother and child. Preventing it is in everyone’s best interest.
When I took birth control I paid for it not anyone else, plus I wasn’t messing around with guys at 13 and up either.. thats the age when a lot of teenagers are getting pregnant..but planned parenthood encourage young teens to have sex in my opinion, have sex if you get pregnant we’ll abort it for you..
All agencies – whether privately or publically funded must demonstrate outcomes. Funders demand it and any organization worth its salt needs and wants to know how they are doing in a meaningful way. It requires data gathering and evaluation and it’s rigorous. Most not-for-profits are not well equipped to implement this process with fidelity and this is where Youth Catalytics comes in. Aside from the incredible work on the Teen Pregnancy Prevention project side, Youth Catalytics also works to promote organizations to be at their best by delivering the greatest value to their stakeholders and client communities they exist to serve. This decision is a watershed in prevention based services and will impact both directly and indirectly for years to come.
Vicky Smith