Making the Link: Pregnancy Prevention and the New Welfare Era.

This report offers strategies to prevent unintended pregnancy in an era when the nation's welfare program has a changed mission, more money, and greater reach. The report discusses types of links between welfare offices and family planning services being developed in California, Georgia, and Washington, identifying barriers and challenges to developing links and noting possible solutions. Part 1 defines the link, providing a lexicon for the different ways that welfare agencies might interact with other agencies working on unintended pregnancy. It also summarizes links that have already been established in the three states. It concludes by discussing why states should consider linking welfare and family planning, noting challenges in making the links work and looking at key design questions to consider when formulating new or expanded programs. Part 2 offers the full story of the three states' initiatives, focusing on the history and development of the initiatives, elements of the initiatives, and local implementation. California has a large variety of links at different levels of government and among different agencies. Georgia spends welfare funds on an adolescent pregnancy prevention initiative. Washington has implemented a unified vision of co-location and improved access to voluntary pregnancy prevention services. (SM)