Wednesday, March 12, 2025
3/12/2025
Child Trends, along with our partners Identity and UMD, proposes to rigorously evaluate El Camino, an innovative goal setting, sexual risk reduction intervention developed for and with Latinx teens. The overarching goal of this project is to reduce adolescent childbearing and STIs and promote educational attainment and optimal health among Latinx adolescents. To achieve this, the experienced study team will: 1) implement and scale up El Camino in high-need high schools in Montgomery County, Maryland; 2) conduct a rigorous quasi-experimental evaluation of El Camino relative to a general health program; and 3) disseminate findings to key stakeholders interested in implementing similar efforts. Child Trends developed El Camino to fill an unmet need in teen pregnancy prevention programming for Latinx adolescents. El Camino was systematically designed, tested, and revised through formative and pilot research with Latinx adolescents, and initial findings are promising. The intervention is ready for implementation and evaluation within three months of award. All intervention, training, and evaluation materials have been developed and field tested in English and Spanish. Identity has secured letters of support from eight high schools, and Identity’s bilingual facilitators have experience implementing El Camino. UMD has an established relationship with the project team and has designed a rigorous evaluation that involves three semesters of implementation, both a post-test and a 12-month follow-up, and an implementation evaluation. The proposed research will contribute to the limited number of culturally tailored sexual risk reduction programs for Latinx teens and available for English- and Spanish-language implementation settings.
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).