Format

Workshop

First Presenter's Institution

ETR

First Presenter’s Email Address

pam.drake@etr.org

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Dr. Drake has a PhD in Measurement and Quantitative Methods from Michigan State University. As a Senior Research Scientist at ETR, she combines her love of evaluation with her desire to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities. She has over 20 years of experience at ETR and oversees ETR’s evaluation work in addition to directing numerous health-focused evaluations of differing sizes, scopes, and rigor, including 8 RCTs, many in the area of teen sexual and reproductive health. Dr. Drake is well-versed in qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

Second Presenter's Institution

ETR

Second Presenter’s Email Address

kristin.kennedy@etr.org

Second Presenter's Brief Biography

Kristin Kennedy, MS, MPH, CPH, has over 10 years of project coordination and program management experience in sexual and reproductive health, particularly HIV and STI prevention and treatment for queer and trans youth of color in the South. Her experiences include community engagement, strategic planning and grant writing, program planning and implementation, monitoring and evaluation, training development, and research coordination.

Location

Session Two Breakouts (Verelst)

Strand #1

Health: Mental & Physical Health

Strand #2

Home: Family & Community Engagement

Relevance

We will be presenting on a group concept mapping process and concept model related to engaging youth in school and community sexual and reproductive health programs. The model includes components relevant to sexual and reproductive health content as well as strategies for engaging youth.

Brief Program Description

This session will introduce the use of a group concept mapping process to create a conceptual model for engaging youth in sexual and reproductive health programming – particularly BIPOC LGBTQ+ youth and young men of color. We will walk through the gcm process, present the model, and explore ways to apply the model in various situations.

Summary

The YEN – Youth Engagement Network – is an Office of Population Affairs (OPA)-funded Tier 2 Innovation Project. The goal of the YEN is to create a network of youth and youth-serving adults who work together to add to the knowledge base on how to meaningfully engage youth in programs that seek to improve the sexual and reproductive health outcomes of young people. We are particularly focused on giving voice to BIPOC LGBTQ youth and young men of color. One endeavor we are undertaking is the development of a conceptual model of meaningful youth engagement in programs for young people that teach and advocate for sexual health and wellbeing. To create this model, we have used group concept mapping (GCM)– a research-based process of brainstorming, sorting and ranking ideas from a wide variety of stakeholders, including youth. As we move into the third and final year of the project, we are vetting the model and its ability to provide guidance for meaningfully engaging and giving voice to young people in SRH program development, implementation, and evaluation. There is extensive interest in the field of adolescent health to engage youth in the development, delivery, and evaluation of health programs; however, few programs meaningfully engage youth across each of these phases. Many agencies lack the resources and capacity to engage youth as leaders in programs that impact their personal development and health. Further, the measures and methods used across studies to explore the effectiveness of youth engagement (YE) are inconsistent; thus, YE practices have not been systematically documented or empirically tested, leaving a gap in supporting organizations, adults and youth who wish to learn from best practices.

Evidence

Group Concept Mapping is a tool for Mixed-Methods Participatory Research. We worked with Concept Systems Incorporated (CSI) to complete the gcm process. They have an extensive database of research:

https://groupwisdom.com/gcmpublications

It is a process for creating a visual map of complex information. We have applied the process to focus on supporting practitioners in engaging BIPOC LGBTQ+ youth and young men of color in sexual and reproductive health programming.

A unified framework that focuses on youth-adult partnerships in program co-creation, evaluation, leadership processes as well as the infrastructure needed to create and sustain meaningful opportunities for YE enhances our ability to identify, apply and systematically assess the extent to which strategies are effective at engaging youth. Our process has involved young people and practitioners who work with them.

Learning Objective 1

Participants will be able to explain the group concept mapping process.

Learning Objective 2

Participants will be able to list the main components of the youth engagement conceptual model.

Learning Objective 3

Participants will be able to describe how to apply the conceptual model to their work.

Keyword Descriptors

youth engagement, sexual and reproductive health, concept mapping

Presentation Year

2023

Start Date

3-6-2023 1:00 PM

End Date

3-6-2023 2:15 PM

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Mar 6th, 1:00 PM Mar 6th, 2:15 PM

Engaging Youth in the Development, Implementation, an Evaluation of Sexual and Reproductive Health Programs

Session Two Breakouts (Verelst)

This session will introduce the use of a group concept mapping process to create a conceptual model for engaging youth in sexual and reproductive health programming – particularly BIPOC LGBTQ+ youth and young men of color. We will walk through the gcm process, present the model, and explore ways to apply the model in various situations.