Strengthening state health and education agency partnerships to prevent HIV, STD, and pregnancy among school-aged youth

Issue: As HIV, STD and pregnancy rates surge, youth ages 13 to 29 are increasingly at risk for negative sexual health outcomes in the U.S. Organizational bureaucracies, program funding restrictions, and workforce shortages hamper state efforts to address these crises and their social determinants. Through cross-agency collaboration, state departments of health and education can work together to create and enhance comprehensive policy and program initiatives targeting adolescents. Description: The National Stakeholders Meeting (NSM), conducted by the National Stakeholders Collaborative (NSC), offers capacity-building assistance to state health and education agencies,strengthening cross-program collaboration and improving HIV, STD, and pregnancy prevention programs for youth. The NSC is comprised of four national, non-profit organizations, each having the purpose of providing technical assistance and support to administrators and staff in the departments of health and education. The NSC operates under a cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lessons Learned: NSMs strengthen communication and collaboration between state departments of health and education. Specifically, NSMs resulted in the development of state action plans and unified vision to strengthen collaboration among state agencies working to improve the adolescent health, address health and education disparities, share data, and increase communication across state agencies. Of the 121 eligible respondents surveyed across 29 participating states, 84 percent reported that collaboration had improved. Recommendations: In 2010, NSC launches NSM 2.0, an in-depth capacity-building approach to bolster the sustainability of NSM outcomes. NSC will conduct a comprehensive analysis of its technical assistance and develop a report on findings.