The overall goal of the proposed Kalihi Youth Sexual Health (KYSH) project is to work in partnership with stakeholders (e.g., youth, parents/caregivers, and community members) to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes, promote positive youth development, and advance health equity for Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander (NHOPI) and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and/or questioning (LGBTQ+) youth and their families by replicating to scale evidence-based programs (EBPs) with fidelity and quality in the Kalihi neighborhood of Honolulu, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi.
Home to approximately 58,054 people, Kalihi is a neighborhood on the eastside of downtown Honolulu. Kalihi has a high percentage of immigrant and low-income families, many of whom are NHOPI. Although the state of Hawaiʻi’s teen birth rate is lower than the national average, NHOPI and LGBTQ+ youth in Kalihi experience teen birth and HIV/STI incidence rates two-to four-times higher than the national average. There are many contributing factors to adolescent health disparities in Kalihi, including a lack of access to EBPs; NHOPI and LGBTQ+ discrimination in the healthcare system; high rates of poverty and uninsured families; and cultural differences within the NHOPI population that influence attitudes toward sexuality.
Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaiʻi, Alaska, Indiana, and Kentucky (PP) will lead the KYSH project. Primary project partners will include: Philliber Research & Evaluation; Farrington High School, the only public high school in Kalihi; Parents and Children Together, a local community-based organization; and Kōkua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services, a federally qualified health center. Working together, the KYSH project partners will replicate EBPs in three distinct settings: the school setting at Farrington; the afterschool setting at Farrington; and community settings where Kalihi youth and families live, work, and play. The KYSH project will include programming for NHOPI and LGBTQ+ youth as well as programming for their parents/caregivers.
To implement EBPs to scale, PPGHAIK will provide training, technical assistance, and observation to teachers at Farrington High School who will facilitate EBPs for their students. PPGNHAIK’s education staff will also directly implement EBPs for youth and families in afterschool and community settings. This multifaceted approach of replicating EBPs in multiple settings will ensure the KYSH project casts a wide net and reaches as many NHOPI and LGBTQ+ youth and families as possible. Short-term project outcomes will be an increased understanding of sexual and reproductive health; improved family communication about sex; lower rates of sexual risk taking; and higher rates of sexual health care acquisition. The long-term outcomes of the KYSH project will be lower rates of teen pregnancy and HIV/STI incidence among Kahili’s NHOPI and LGBTQ+ populations.
To ensure the KYSH project is culturally and linguistically appropriate, age-appropriate, medically accurate, youth-centered, and trauma-informed, PP will establish a Community Advisory Group (CAG) and a Youth Advisory Group (YAG) to coordinate and evaluate all project activities. The CAG will be composed of Kalihi youth, parents/caregivers, teachers, and other youth-serving professionals. The YAG will be composed exclusively of Kalihi youth, including many NHOPI and LGBTQ+ adolescents.
In Year 1 (7/1/2023-6/30/2024), following a six-month start-up period, the project will reach 350 unduplicated youth and 10 parents/caregivers. The project will scale up in subsequent years and reach 700 unduplicated youth and 20 unduplicated parents/caregivers annually. By the end of the five-year grant period, the KYSH project will have reached 3,150 youth and 90 parents/caregivers and significantly added to the knowledge base for replicating Teen Pregnancy Prevention EBPs with fidelity and quality with NHOPI and LGBTQ+ youth and families.