Friday, April 26, 2024
4/26/2024
Project Need: Many of the most effective sexual health programs and services have not been adequately expanded to rural areas of the country, where significant disparities in adolescent birth rates and sexually transmitted infection rates remain. Targeted strategies to increase access to sexual health education and services in rural communities are crucial to diminishing urban/rural disparities and ensuring optimal health for all youth. Fresno County, located in the large and diverse Central Valley of California, is the most productive agricultural county in the state and nation, yet faces considerable socioeconomic challenges. The rural areas of the county face even greater inequities and barriers to quality services. The overall goal of this project is to promote the optimal health of youth in rural Fresno County by replicating an evidence-based sexual health curriculum and cultivating systemic changes in the community. Proposed Project: Promoting Optimal Health for Rural Youth is guided by a systems thinking approach that recognizes the multiple environments that youth must navigate to achieve optimal health, including their families, schools, policies, and health care systems. The project combines the replication of an evidence-based sexual health education curriculum (Positive Prevention Plus) in local school districts with additional leverage points in the community to ensure the greatest impact on adolescent health. This includes repeated points of contact with youth for sexual health education (in 9th and 11th grade), professional learning opportunities for school staff, training on youth-friendliness for local clinics, the development of a referral system for services, and educational workshops for parents and caregivers. This multipronged approach aims to stimulate sustainable and innovative change in rural Fresno County and, if successful, provide a model for other rural communities in need. Evaluation: The project includes evaluation efforts to fulfill federal reporting requirements and support continuous quality improvement. The evaluation will monitor implementation successes and challenges by collecting measures of program reach, dosage, implementation quality, sustainability, and partnerships. The project will build upon established data collection systems including participant surveys, interviews and focus groups, and mystery client assessments of clinics. Implementation fidelity will be assessed though fidelity checklists and observations of at least 10% of sessions. Evaluation results will be reviewed regularly by project partners for continuous quality improvement and annually with other community stakeholders. Organizational Capacity: Promoting Optimal Health for Rural Youth combines the programmatic expertise of the Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission and the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools with the evaluation expertise of the University of California, San Francisco. This team brings years of experience in developing, implementing and evaluating programs for youth, with an emphasis on vulnerable and underserved populations in Fresno County. Throughout and beyond this project, the project partners are committed to engaging youth, parents/caregivers, and the community to ensure its relevance and likelihood of success.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
