CAIRO — The Jackie Robinson Boys & Girls Club and the Morehouse School of Medicine are celebrating five years of partnership with two Grady County schools through their Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Initiative (TPPI).

Club Director Stephen Francis presented $500 checks courtesy of Morehouse to Washington Middle School Principal Michael Best and Cairo High School Principal Chris Lokey last week out of appreciation for their years of partnership.

“For the last five years, the partnership between Morehouse School of Medicine and Grady County has been a very successful journey that caught traction with the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative at Washington Middle School and then Cairo High School,” Francis said. “The program has presented the students an opportunity to become more aware of teen pregnancy along with voicing their opinions and engaging even more into the positive decision-making that will be relevant in their future success.”

This is the second year the schools have been presented with the checks, the club director said.

Francis estimates more than 3,000 middle school and high school-aged students have been served through the program, which encourages teenagers to take personal responsibility for their actions and their health. Program facilitators enter schools to speak directly with students in the sixth and ninth grades.

The evidence-based and federal grant-funded initiative has operated over the past five years in five southwest Georgia counties, including Grady County, which have teen birth rates that exceed the national average.

Other key goals of the TPPI program include reducing sexually-transmitted infections among adolescents, increasing student bonding to school and academic performance and increasing community awareness of teen pregnancy prevention and positive youth development programs.

Many students completed the course virtually this year despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the Boys & Girls Club said in a statement.