Healthy Young Parent Program (HYPP)

Program Overview

The Healthy Young Parent Program (formerly known as the Healthy Montana Teen Parent Program) provides coordinated support for young expectant and parenting families in tribal communities, high schools, institutions of higher education, and community-based service centers. To assist Montana in offering resources to young families, the state received funds from the Office of Adolescent Health (OAH) through the Pregnancy Assistance Fund (PAF). The overall goal of HYPP is to facilitate self-sufficiency of expectant and parenting youth, women, fathers and their families to build their parenting capacity, encourage post-secondary education and preparedness for the workforce, and improve the healthy growth and development of their children.

HYPP aims to improve life outcomes for young parents (ages 24 and younger) in Montana by offering the following services:

Flexible, quality schooling to help parents complete high school or obtain their GED.
Case management and family support services.
Referral and linages to prenatal care and reproductive health services.
Quality child care with coordinate links to basic preventive care.
Nurturing, parenting and life skills education and support services.
Father involvement and support services.
Direct services (i.e. diapers, gas cards for appointments, baby formula, etc.)

Every child that is welcomed into Montana is a gift. Children provide hope for the next generations to come and help shape the future. However, not every family is at a place where they can provide everything their child may need, especially young families. Young parents face several barriers when it comes to raising their child like: financial insecurity, lower educational achievement, lack of resources, and more. HYPP aims to provide young parents with the resources they need to establish a stable home-life for their young family.

The high social and economic costs of being a young parent can have short- and long-term consequences. It is not just young parents who are affected, but also their families and the community. Cognitive, physical, and emotional development continues through adolescence, so it is crucial to provide the necessary services and resources to young parents. Evidence-based or informed practices must be used to facilitate the self-sufficiency of young parents, build parenting skills, and improve the growth and development of their children.

A lack of education and resources affects not only young parents, but their children as well. Children of young mothers are more likely to have lower school achievement, drop out of school, have health problems, and face future unemployment.

Encouraging father involvement decreases the number of single-parent households and improves the outcome of their children. By encouraging young parents to finish and/or continue their education, they will have further resources to raise their children.

HYPP aims to offer case management and other family support services. Nurturing, parenting, and life skills classes or workshops can assist young parents in developing skills to become capable parents and establishing a stable home life.

Only 40 percent of teen moms finish high school, and less than 2 percent finish college by age 30.¹
In 2013, national infant mortality rates were 43% higher among mothers under 20 years old compared to the overall mortality rate (8.52 deaths per 1,000 births compared to 5.96).²
In 2015, Montana teen mothers smoked during pregnancy at a rate 67% higher than older mothers.³
From 2010 to 2016, the national birth rate declined by 51%, while Montana’s teen birth rate declined by only 33%.³