EmpowHer is Prevention Curriculum for Youth Ages 10-15 Years.

Alternatives For Girls (AFG's) EmpowHer curriculum is a program for youth who are 10-15 years of age. The curriculum is youth-co-led, and innovative (using online platforms and digitized presentation of material. EmpowHer addresses four adulthood preparation subjects (APS), such as parent-child communication, healthy relationships, adolescent development, and healthy life skills, and can be implemented as an after-school, in/out-of-school-time program.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Abstinence, Sex
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: The intervention curriculum addresses sexual activity, abstinence, and adulthood preparation topics.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 552
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Celia Thomas, DHA; Phone Number: 313-361-4000; Email: cthomas@alternativesforgirls.org

Study Locations

• United States
  • Michigan
    • Detroit, Michigan, United States, 48208
      • Recruiting
      • Alternatives For Girls
      • Contact: Jonquil Bertschi, JD; Phone Number: 3133614000; Email: jbertschi@alternativesforgirls.org
      • Contact: Celia Thomas, MPA; Phone Number: 226 3133614000; Email: cthomas@alternativesforgirls.org

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Youth who are 10 -15 years of age at the start of the study and residing in Detroit, Outer-Wayne County or geographically similar areas at the time of enrollment will be eligible to participate in the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

Participants who are currently utilizing other services from Alternatives For Girls (AFG), children of AFG staff and youth participating in other sexual health education programs will not be eligible to participate and will be wait-listed until they are no longer receiving other services from AFG (i.e., after-school programs, summer day camps, mentoring, youth leadership programs, and shelter services). These services are unrelated to the study/sexual health education and do not include EmpowHer or Sassy Science. If siblings were to be enrolled, one would be randomly assigned, and the rest would be allowed to participate in the same group as the study sibling but not counted in the evaluation. This is to prevent possible contamination between conditions.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: EmpowHer; The intervention curriculum is designed to address abstinence, and adulthood preparation topics.

Behavioral: The intervention curriculum addresses sexual activity, abstinence, and adulthood preparation topics.; The intervention is youth-co-led, and targets youth in Detroit, Out-Wayne County or geographically similar areas through a 16-unit curriculum totaling 20 hours. Each participant and their parent/guardian will also receive one individual session with a case planner. Parents will receive 3 hours of parental support group. EmpowHer contains lessons and activities focusing on topics relating to abstinence, and teen pregnancy prevention, focusing on adulthood preparation subjects (APS), such as parent-child communication, adolescent development, healthy life skills, and healthy relationships.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Recent sexual activity	Do participants in the curriculum model (EmpowHer) show reduced rates of sexual activity at 9-month follow up compared to those in a control curriculum (Sassy Science)?	At 9-month follow up.
Abstinence	Do participants in the curriculum model (EmpowHer) show increased rates of abstinence at (a) 6-month follow-up, and (b) 9-month follow up compared to those in control curriculum (Sassy Science)?	At 9-month follow up.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Healthy relationship knowledge	Do participants in the curriculum model (EmpowHer) show increased healthy relationship knowledge at post-test compared to those in a control curriculum (Sassy Science)?	After 20-hour intervention (at post-test).

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Alternatives For Girls

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 22, 2022
• Primary Completion (Estimated): January 30, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): September 30, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 28, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 11, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): January 23, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): August 14, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 11, 2025
• Last Verified: August 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: EmpowHer

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: Not sharing.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No