Women United Endowment Fund

The Women United Endowment Fund was restablished in 2019, to recognizes the outstanding efforts of Elizabeth Brenner and the women and men who have made significant investments of time, talent, and treasure in the Teen Pregnancy Prevention work since its inception. The fund will be used to support evidence-based strategies that align with United Way’s Teen Pregnancy Prevention and Healthy Youth programming. 

Healthy Youth

Between 2001 and 2023, United Way invested over $10.4 million and more than 52,000 youth and parents have been served by the Healthy Youth Initiative. 

• The Healthy Youth Initiative began in 2001 as the “Healthy Girls Initiative” and was spearheaded by Women United who felt that there was a need for girls-specific programming. One of the first investments was in PEARLS for Teen Girls, who continues to partner with us today. 
• In 2006, the Healthy Youth Initiative evolved to focus on healthy relationships and teen pregnancy prevention, with most of the funding going to programming supporting healthy relationships.
• In 2007, we developed our first Let’s Talk Family Communication Toolkit, which was a response to research that shows that young people want to hear information on sexual health from their parents/caregivers, but don’t know how to start the conversation.
• In 2008, the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative announced a goal to reduce the teen birth rate for 15–17-year-olds by 46% by 2015. We launched the website BabyCanWait.com and included youth-focused content as well as resources for parents and caregivers. 
• Also, in 2008 The Healthy Youth initiative again evolved and began requiring an evidence-based curricula for Teen Pregnancy Prevention called Making Proud Choices and provided national trainers to train Milwaukee-based facilitators. An evidence-based curricula means that it’s been proven effective in the goals of the curricula. We knew that there was a correlation between sexual violence and teen pregnancy, so while most of our investments at the time went to pregnancy prevention curricula, we also recommended healthy relationships curricula like Safe Dates, which was considered a best practice curriculum and is now considered evidence-based. 
• In 2009, United Way staff became trained in Making Proud Choices and taught the curricula in local schools alongside our Healthy Youth initiative funded partners. United Way staff began training facilitators locally in the evidence-based curricula. 
• In 2011, United Way launched our Healthy Youth Leadership Institute based on research that young people listen to their peers when it comes to sexual health, especially if they don’t feel comfortable talking to a parent or trusted adult. The Healthy Youth Leadership Institute was a 4 day intensive retreat at COA’s Camp Helen Brachman for youth ages 14-17. Youth participated in team building, learned about sexuality, gender and gender oppression, LGBTQ+ inclusivity, sexual assault and victimization, local resources, and how to facilitate evidence-based curricula. The institute lasted 5 years, and trained hundreds of young people on how to be peer-educators.
• In 2012 we announced that we had exceeded our goal to reduce the teen birth rate – three years early! We have continued to see a decline in the birth rate since. 
• In 2018, we again evolved as an initiative and expanded our investments to include teen sex trafficking prevention. 

By the numbers for Milwaukee County:

2006 = 39.5 births per 1,000 teens 
2022 = 9.5 births per 1,000 teens 
 

The Healthy Youth Initiative invests in community-based organizations who work alongside our school system providing education in school during the school day, as well as in other settings like group homes, after school sites, and juvenile detention centers. Since 2009, Making Proud Choices has been taught as a complement to Milwaukee Public School’s own Human Growth & Development Curricula. 

Funded Programs

In 2023-24 the following agencies and programs became part of United Way’s Health Portfolio to ensure continued support. 

COA Youth & Family Centers 
Opportunities, Chances and Decisions helps youth (ages 11-18) gain the information, skills, and motivation to make healthy decisions about sex and relationships and reduce sexual violence, victimization and risky behaviors that lead to STIs, HIV and teen pregnancy, using the evidence based Making Proud Choices! curriculum. 

Diverse & Resilient 
Healthy Youth: Making Proud Choices! Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Allied Youth has adapted Making Proud Choices! curriculum for LBTQ youth (ages 13-18) with feedback from focus groups, youth, and a pilot group to address data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey that shows sexually active lesbian, bisexual, and queer (LBQ) girls are at higher risk for teen pregnancy and STIs/HIV than their peers. 

IndependenceFirst 
Youth Leadership Program: Independence First teaches Making Proud to youth with disabilities at schools in Milwaukee and Waukesha counties. The program focuses on high school youth but can also be conducted for elementary age students with disabilities.

Lad Lake 
Lad Lake Healthy Youth Initiative: The program will utilize My Life, My Choice curriculum to prevent and/or decrease the risk of commercial sexual exploitation for twenty-five young women ages 12-18 within Lad Lake's out of home care programs. Lad Lake will also utilize the Making Proud Choices curriculum youth ages 12-21 engaged in Lad Lake services.

Neu-Life Community Resource Center 
Healthy Youth program: Neu Life uses the Making Proud Choices Curriculum with youth aged in-school and after school. Additionally, youth will receive Neu-STEPP, Neu-Life's Sex Trafficking Education Prevention Program. 

The Parenting Network 
Making Proud Choices plus RELATE is an evidence-based sexual education curriculum consisting of 8 modules combined with 2 added sessions from the RELATE (Relationship Education Leading Adolescents Toward Empowerment) curriculum that address the importance of understanding what constitutes a healthy relationship. 

Pathfinders 
Prevention Education Program: Making Proud Choices! and Street Smarts curricula provides inclusive prevention education for youth who attend middle schools and youth-serving community-based programs, with expertise in serving runaway/homeless youth populations. 

PEARLS 
Positive Prevention Plus:  PEARLS’ strong programming components addressing the antecedents to teen pregnancy and addresses issues such as education, poverty, family, and relationships, they build their self-sufficiency, communication, goal setting, critical thinking, and positive decision-making skills.

Wisconsin Community Services 
Healthy Youth Initiative provide teen pregnancy prevention and sexual violence prevention curricula focusing on youth with a high risk of involvement in the criminal justice system, mental illness, substance-abuse, school expulsion, and poverty.