Working with Diverse Communities

From 2010 to 2015, CDC, the federal Office of Adolescent Health (OAH), and the Office of Population Affairs collaborated to demonstrate the effectiveness of innovative, multicomponent, communitywide initiatives in reducing rates of teen pregnancy and births in communities with the highest rates, with a focus on reaching African American and Latino or Hispanic young people aged 15 to 19 years.

Raising the community’s awareness of the link between teen pregnancy and social determinants of health, was central to the communitywide initiatives.  Ensuring that culturally and linguistically appropriate programs and reproductive health care services were available to young people was also a key tenet of the initiatives.

The awardees, nine state-and community-based organizations and five national organizations, along with CDC and OAH, collaboratively developed valuable program tools and resources which may be useful for other teen pregnancy prevention initiatives:

Strategies

• Working with Diverse Communities Strategies Guided by Best Practice [PDF – 608KB] – A list of strategies to help organizations address disparities and inequities in teen pregnancy and teen birth rates.  JSI was the national organization funded to provide technical assistance to the state- and community-based grantees (known as Part A grantees) on the Working with Diverse Communities component of the community-wide initiatives.  JSI worked in partnership with CDC to develop this document.

Webinars:

• Social Determinants of Teen Pregnancy. Webinar hosted by OAH and CDC, along with OAH/CDC grantees, on May 15, 2013.  (On OAH Teen Pregnancy Prevention Resource Center)
  Slides[PDF – 1.8MB], Audio [mp3], Transcript[PDF – 106KB]

Tools:

Communicating Effectively about the Social Determinants of Health that Impact Teen Pregnancy Adapted from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s publication, A New Way to Talk About The Social Determinants of Health, this tool provides tips and strategies to help raise awareness among stakeholders and engage community members in meaningful discussions related to teen pregnancy and the social determinants of health.

http://rhey.jsi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Communicate-SDH-Tool-FINAL-12-7-12.pdf

 

Integrating a Social Determinants of Health Approach in Teen Pregnancy Prevention

Three case examples illustrate how teen pregnancy prevention programs used data to assess community context and inform action on teen pregnancy prevention and related social determinants of health. Highlights include using data to enhance community engagement and establish community partnerships, as well as engaging youth in participatory research to address the social determinants of health.

http://rhey.jsi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/SDH-Case-Study.Final_.pdf

 

Whole Teen Assessment Question Bank

This bank has questions on social determinants of health for client intake and interview forms used by teen pregnancy prevention programs, teen clinics, and other youth-serving programs. Questions related to housing, safety, health care, education, and social connections are also included.

http://rhey.jsi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Whole-Teen-Assessment-Question-Bank.pdf