The ACT for Youth Center for Community Action, a BCTR project focused on positive youth development and adolescent health, is extending its reach across the nation this year with new partnerships that support youth programming and engagement.
First, ACT for Youth is partnering with the Youth Engagement Network, a three-year, federally funded project by behavioral health non-profit Education, Training, and Research (ETR). The project will engage youth at four sites across the nation – Los Angeles, California’s central valley, Mississippi, and Michigan. The goal is to build engagement in sexual health programs, prevent teen pregnancy and reduce sexually transmitted infections, especially among young people who experience systemic marginalization or discrimination.
ACT for Youth will support ETR in each of these four communities to develop strategies to engage with youth, create evaluation tools, and document the progress of each program.
Mary Maley, ACT for Youth’s extension associate for research synthesis and translation
“Engaging young people directly in services that promote adolescent sexual health shows great promise for improving outcomes for youth,” said Mary Maley, extension associate for research synthesis and translation at ACT for Youth. “We are looking forward to supporting the unique strategies these four sites are using to strengthen youth engagement in these initiatives.”
Second, ACT for Youth is partnering with My People, a social service organization funded by the state of Connecticut that offers supportive housing, foster care collaboration, school-based support, and therapeutic and crisis intervention support services.
Through the partnership, participating organizations will utilize ACT for Youth’s online training in positive youth development. ACT for Youth will train My People staff to facilitate online learning communities and develop a practice guide that organizations throughout Connecticut can use to provide young people positive, developmental environments, experiences and relationships.
Karen Schantz, ACT for Youth’s clearinghouse director
“This is an exciting opportunity to support Connecticut youth service professionals as they take their positive youth development efforts to the next level,” said Karen Schantz, ACT for Youth’s clearinghouse director.
These partnerships are evidence of ACT for Youth’s national reputation for supporting youth development, ACT for Youth Director Jane Powers said.
“Youth engagement is a fundamental tenet of positive youth development and continues to captivate researchers, practitioners, and policy makers,” Powers said. “We have a lot of expertise in both promoting youth engagement through our research and training efforts and preventing risky sexual behaviors that has led these organizations to reach out to us.”
You can learn more about ACT for Youth at http://actforyouth.net/.
