In 1999-2000, the California Department of Health Services funded 134 Community Challenge Grant (CCG) projects to reduce the state’s high rates of adolescent pregnancy. Prior evaluation of the CCG project (Brindis & Cagampang, 2001) has shown that adolescents attending programs that provide both youth development opportunities and comprehensive family life education experience the greatest positive change in outcome measures from pretest to posttest. Thus, it is especially important to examine the relationship between reproductive health education and youth development components of CCG programs. This paper reports on a cluster study of 15 exemplary CCG projects that involve youth to varying degrees in planning and implementing teen pregnancy prevention programs. The study’s primary objective was to obtain qualitative data from selected CCG projects about the interventions, how they were implemented, and participants’ responses to the interventions. The investigators gathered examples of "best practices" by looking at a diverse sample of programs to describe the linkages between youth development and pregnancy prevention, and more broadly, overall adolescent health. Preliminary observations indicate that a range of approaches can be used to build successful community-based youth initiatives. However, all the programs in this study shared the notion that young people can solve problems and improve conditions when they work together at the community level. Strategies found to be successful by these CCG programs include: building youth participation into the program’s governance structure, designing development-focused interventions, joining efforts with other community improvement initiatives, and hiring staff who are knowledgeable about and dedicated to the community.
Learning Objectives: After this session, participants will be able to: 1) describe how youth development opportunities contribute to adolescent pregnancy prevention and, more broadly, adolescent health, and 2) describe how a qualitative cluster design can be used to further investigate quantitative survey results.
Keywords: Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Community Programs
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Office of Community Challenge Grants, California Department of Health Services; Statewide Evaluation Director, Community Challenge Grant Program
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.