Increasing access to reproductive and sexual health care: Innovative strategies to decrease rates of STIs in young women of color

In Chicago, young women of color, including young transgender women of color, are disproportionately burdened by Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). Preventing and treating STIs are critical to long term health and well-being. A community based organization created a coalition of partners to convene two expert advisory boards to guide innovative strategies to decrease rates of STIs in young women of color by increasing their access to comprehensive sexual health care. Youth experts form a youth-specific advisory board which works collaboratively with a separate adult community advisory board consisting of experts in public health.

Year 1 strategies of the advisory boards include a community needs assessment, a city-wide social marketing campaign, participation in developing a mobile phone application, and establishing rectal STI testing for young transgender women. These activities were designed to impact structural level factors identified by the needs assessment. The city-wide social marketing campaign aims to reduce stigma related to STI-testing and to increase awareness of free reproductive and sexual health services.

The presentation will highlight year 1 activities as well as present our program model for dissemination and duplication. Additionally, rates of STI testing and incidence of disease in the target population before and after each activity will be described in effort to contextualize the project’s efforts and community-level impact.