Utilizing Academic-Community Partnerships to Develop and Promote Community-Wide Sexual Health Initiatives

Background: 10 million new STD cases occur among youth ages 15-24 in the United States each year. Although effective interventions are available, barriers such as limited funding and community support for comprehensive sex education have prevented their widespread dissemination. The Adolescent Health Project is an academic-community partnership that was developed to promote youth sexual health in Omaha, Nebraska. This presentation will discuss how research and community engagement strategies were used to develop the initiative and promote widespread community support.     

Methods: A local non-profit organization, the Women’s Fund of Omaha, partnered with a local foundation to develop the Adolescent Health Project. Academic partners served on the advisory board and conducted research to guide the initiative, including: reviewing the literature on risk factors and intervention strategies; conducting an environmental scan that included semi-structured interviews with community stakeholders (n=21); and conducting interviews with local youth (N=41). 

Results: Research results were used to determine three project priorities, which currently are being implemented and evaluated: delivering a community-wide media campaign to educate and reduce stigma about STDs; enhancing clinical providers’ capacity to effectively serve youth; and aligning schools’ sex education curricula with best practices in comprehensive sex education. Prior to implementation, the research and rationale for the chosen strategies were discussed with several groups of diverse community stakeholders to promote buy-in.

Conclusions: Academic-community partnerships that effectively utilize research to set project priorities and engage community stakeholders are a promising approach to overcoming the barriers that often prevent the widespread implementation of youth-focused STD interventions.