Supporting Teens' Access and Rights (Project STAR) - To advance healthy equity, promote positive youth development, reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, and improve the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes of youth in New York City (NYC), Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, Inc. (PPGNY) proposes the implementation of Project STAR - Supporting Teens’ Access and Rights. Project STAR will take a youth-centered, adolescent-friendly approach to addressing adolescent health outcomes and mitigating disparities among NYC youth who are disproportionally impacted by unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Central to this approach is the replication of age-appropriate, medically-accurate, evidence-based SRH education programs (EBPs) across a network of partners with sites across 15 NYC Community Districts with health disparities across the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Upper Manhattan. Programming will be offered in three settings: middle and high schools; afterschool and out-of-school time programs offered by community-based organizations (CBOs); and residential facilities serving youth experiencing homelessness. Within these settings, we will also focus a percentage of effort on the following three youth populations: youth who identify as LGBTQ+; immigrant and/or English Language Learners (ELL); and youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The project will include a parent-to-parent peer education component for the parents, guardians, and other caring adults in young people's lives, as well as training for youth-serving professionals. Programming will be bolstered by linkages to supportive and positive youth development services that are adolescent friendly. Through Project STAR, once the activities are to scale, PPGNY proposes an annual reach of 1,600 young people through effective EBP replication sessions, 200 parents or guardians through parent peer workshops, and 50 youth-serving professionals through workshops and trainings.
