Activate: a research to practice center for adolescent health promotion for youth supporting professionals - child trends and chapin hall are partnering to further refine and carry out the work of…

Activate: a research to practice center for adolescent health promotion for youth supporting professionals - child trends and chapin hall are partnering to further refine and carry out the work of activate, a research to practice center first funded by OPA in 2020 with the goal of promoting adolescent health and preventing teenage pregnancy by bringing adolescent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) research to youth-serving professionals (ysps). Activate will leverage its current experience and assets (e.g., well-developed systems, methods, plans, and partners-including the activate research alliance and collaborators) to continue its efficient and effective work in the priority area of working with ysps in the systems that serve youth who are considered vulnerable (i.e., activate's focal populations). This population includes youth who have experience with the child welfare and/or justice systems, homelessness, or disconnection from school and work (i.e., opportunity youth). Activate's focal populations are more likely to experience undesirable sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes. For example, they are more likely to experience a pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, and to have less access to SRH services than their peers. There are several critical gaps in research to practice resources for ysps who support activate's focal populations. Ysps want but often lack access to SRH research syntheses, research-based SRH technical assistance (TA) resources, and training. Our needs assessment found that ysps have limited access to research-, culturally-, and trauma-informed and gender-affirming information about SRH, and limited access to high-quality SRH care resources and services to best promote youths' positive SRH outcomes. Our goal is to support the translation of adolescent SRH research into resources for ysps and to strategically disseminate these resources. We will curate, translate, and disseminate scientific knowledge about SRH by continuing to compile existing research-based resources within the activate web-based resource explorer; synthesizing research on effective or promising practices and programs; developing research-informed TA resources using scientific approaches to research translation; and strategically disseminating research to ysps, administrators, and policymakers. We will build ysps' technical capacity to address SRH through a diverse range of traditional and innovative approaches and trainings about priority SRH topics. We will collaborate with OPA, researchers, ysps, and youth to develop and facilitate the use of research-based resources to improve public health practice. By adhering to child trends' standards for equitable research and a well-developed equity review process, activate's resources will enhance equity and inclusivity to prevent perpetuation of disparities among the focal youth populations who are disproportionately from historically marginalized communities (e.g., youth of color, lgbtqi+ youth). The proposed team from child trends and chapin hall brings overlapping and complementary substantive expertise, along with shared and distinct track records in the following areas: research translation; conducting research; promoting evidence-based practices; developing research-to-practice resources; partnering with a range of contributors, including researchers, YSP, and youth; and disseminating findings to a range of audiences of professionals who work with activate's focal populations across multiple systems.