On Friday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced $68 million in funding cuts to Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs. As a result, we experienced a direct loss of approximately $550K/year over the next two years of a five-year grant for our flagship program, Hózhǫ́ Horizons: Empowering Native Youth in Health and Wellness. Hózhó Horizons is a partnership between CIH and the University of Montana focused on serving Diné youth. 

While Hózhó Horizons funding is categorized as “teen pregnancy prevention,” it supports youth holistically. We know that when young people are connected to culture, trusted adult support,  life skills and reproductive health education, they are better positioned to make informed decisions about their futures—including if and when to become parents. Each of these elements shapes their path toward health, education and opportunity.  

For the past three years, Hózhǫ́ Horizons has worked alongside community partners to provide culturally grounded, evidence-based health education to empower youth in making informed decisions and envisioning a successful future. Through year-long activities and an annual summer camp, the Hózho Horizons team guides youth to develop skills and knowledge through:  

  • Family connection workshops that bring teens together with a trusted parent/caregiver to strengthen family communication and well-being, promote informed decision-making including around reproductive health. 
  • Interactive education through a self-paced course on reproductive health using engaging formats such as animated videos, interactive components, and games. The team has replicated a video for clinic-based youth education as well. 
  • Free annual summer camp provides youth an opportunity to learn life skills, participate in health and wellness workshops and be coached in a variety of sports.  

While the federal government terminated funds on Friday, June 26, we will use emergency funds to complete the upcoming Hózhǫ́ Horizons’ summer camp on Navajo Nation (July 13-16 in Chinle, AZ). We will keep our promise to the hundreds of youth who are enrolled. However, these cuts have created uncertainty about delivering future programming. 

Despite the sudden and far-reaching nature of the cuts, our commitment to the health and wellbeing of Indigenous youth remains unchanged. Our teams are jumping into policy and advocacy arenas in hopes that the justice system overturns this harmful decision. We encourage you to join us in doing everything possible to ensure youth programming continues.