May celebrates National Adolescent Health Month, which emphasizes the importance of building on young people’s strengths and potential, encouraging meaningful youth engagement in adolescent health activities, and highlighting key topics in adolescent health. You can promote healthy behaviors and outcomes for adolescents by sharing social media messages with your networks; find sample messages, graphics, and resources on the Office of Population Affairs (OPA) website.
Adolescent health is a broad term that encompasses many aspects of health and well-being, including sexual and reproductive health, mental health, physical health, and the amount and type of care that young people access and receive. Youth-serving programs and organizations should offer resources, tools, and skills that empower adolescents to make informed decisions about their own health.
The resources below from the RHNTC can help youth-serving professionals, including those working in Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) program settings, and family planning providers to support adolescent health and youth development.
For TPP Program Staff
Tips For Recruiting and Retaining Youth in Virtual Programs
This tip sheet summarizes tips on how to recruit, support virtual implementation, and retain youth in virtual programs from experts that presented during a RHNTC webinar entitled Recruiting and Retaining TPP Program Participants Virtually—Strategies From the Field and Peer Sharing.
Facilitation Strategies to Address Virtual Burnout Among Youth in TPP Programs Webinar
This archived webinar from the RHNTC features speakers from Healthy Teen Network sharing feedback from youth about their experiences with virtual learning and providing strategies that TPP program staff can use to avoid contributing to burnout.
The Healthy Relationship Wheel and Relationship Spectrum
This job aid can help youth-serving professionals to discuss characteristics of healthy relationships and encourage adolescents to consider the characteristics of their own relationships. Also available in Spanish.
Tips for How to Talk to Your Teens About Relationships and Their Sexual Health
This tip sheet from OPA provides suggestions for how parents can engage their teens in conversations about creating and maintaining healthy relationships.
Engaging Parents and Caregivers in Programs For Teen Healthy Relationships and Sexual Health Tip Sheet
This tip sheet from OPA provides suggestions for how to engage parents, guardians, and caregivers in TPP programs.
Strategies for Engaging Parents and Caregivers in TPP Programming Tip Sheet
This tip sheet from OPA identifies strategies to engage parents in TPP programming, focusing on ways to address attitudinal, interpersonal, and structural barriers to participation.
Grantee Spotlights
TPP Program Grantee Tests Out Innovative Approaches
In this grantee spotlight, learn how Cabarrus Health Alliance, a TPP Tier 1 grantee, piloted novel approaches while implementing the Elevate program among high school students in North Carolina.
Implementing an Equitable Recruitment Process to Build a Diverse Partner Network
In this grantee spotlight, learn how Thrive, Inc., a TPP Tier 2 (TPP20) Innovation and Impact Network grantee, made their process for recruiting, reviewing, and contracting with new network partners more equitable.
Engaging Parents and Caregivers in a Virtual TPP Program
In this grantee spotlight, learn how Touchstone Health Services in Phoenix, Arizona—a TPP20 Tier 1 grantee—successfully transitioned to virtual programming and adapted its parent and caregiver engagement strategies.
For Family Planning Providers
Promoting Youth-Friendly Environments in Family Planning Clinics Webinar
This archived webinar introduces health care professionals to elements of an adolescent-centered environment, and outlines key staff and provider behaviors that are essential to providing youth-friendly care.
Providing Family Planning Services to Adolescents During Uncertain Times: Tips and Strategies
This job aid summarizes insights on how to adapt your family planning program’s services to meet young people’s emerging reproductive health needs during public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Counseling Adolescent Clients to Encourage Family Participation Video
This 6-minute video shows how to provide counseling that encourages family participation in an adolescent client’s decision to seek family planning services.
Obesity, Insulin Resistance, and Prediabetes: Supporting Adolescents and Young Adults (Part 1) Webinar
This archived webinar focused on how family planning providers and TPP staff can support adolescents and young adults living with obesity, insulin resistance, and prediabetes.
Obesity, Insulin Resistance, and Prediabetes: How to Initiate Counseling for Adolescents and Young Adults (Part 2) Webinar
This archived webinar covered actionable tips and culturally competent strategies for family planning providers and TPP staff initiating counseling related to obesity and diabetes prevention during discussions of pregnancy prevention or planning.
Youth-Friendly Services Starter Guide Job Aid
This job aid from the Adolescent Health Initiative outlines strategies to create a welcoming, respectful, and accessible youth-friendly environment.
Grantee Spotlights
Leveraging School Partnerships to Innovate Family Planning Outreach and Education
In this grantee spotlight, learn how Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation, a Title X grantee in the Northern Mariana Islands, sustained outreach and education to adolescents and young adults by partnering with schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Providing Teen-Friendly Care in Montana
In this grantee spotlight, learn strategies for providing teen-friendly care from Flathead Family Planning, a Title X service site in Montana.
Youth Leaders Inform Adolescent-Responsive Family Planning Services
In this grantee spotlight, read how youth experts helped participants in the RHNTC’s Facilitating Youth Engagement in Title X Programs Peer Learning Group to strengthen both their relationships with adolescent clients and their Title X services overall.
