The 2016 HHS Teen Pregnancy Prevention Conference took place in Baltimore, MD, on July 19-21, 2016. This year’s conference, Connecting the Dots: Collaborating to Achieve Lasting Impacts for Youth, invited federally funded teen pregnancy prevention (TPP) and adolescent sexual health grantees to share ideas and lessons learned from their own programs, particularly as they relate to reaching vulnerable youth.
- The conference was attended by nearly 1000 TPP grantees from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (including both the Division of Adolescent and School Health and the Division of Reproductive Health), the Administration on Children, Youth and Families’ Family and Youth Services Bureau, and the Office of Adolescent Health . The conference opened with a traditional tribal welcome led by Hope Butler from the Piscataway Conoy Tribe. Keynote speakers included Sophie Godley, an expert in implementing evidence-based teen pregnancy programs and building community coalitions, and Bevan K. Baker, the Commissioner of Health for the City of Milwaukee (experienced in real world applications for building collaboration). Grantees had the opportunity to choose from 60 breakout sessions in six key tracks: Program delivery and improvement
- Organizational capacity and infrastructure
- Working with select populations
- Emerging trends
- Evaluation
- Sustainability
FYSB grantees worked together in “UnConference Sessions” on topics identified prior to the conference that were of most concern to them. One grantee noted, “It was helpful to hear how others struggle and how they manage issues.” The conference was an important reminder that grantees are not alone and that their work is extremely important.
One of the highlights for FYSB grantees was the APP Live: Voices of Youth. Talk show panelists included youth from the following APP programs:
- James Madison University, Institute for Innovation in Health & Human Services (Competitive PREP Program: Harrisonburg, VA);
- Public Health Management Corporation, Philadelphia (PREIS Program: Philadelphia); and
- Monterey County Health Department (State PREP Program — sub-awardee: California)
Conference attendees described the talk show as innovative and attention-grabbing according to the twitter chat . It also provided grantees with insights on how to incorporate the youth perspective in their programs. One grantee noted that the youth panelists echoed common themes, despite their varied geographic backgrounds. One of the youth panelists said, “It was a great experience to help spread the word of the youth.” He also shared that he especially enjoyed his time on the talk show with “the man himself,” the Commissioner. And what did the youth panelist have to say about the conference? “IMHO,” (that’s youth-speak for “in my humble opinion”), “[I] admired their work and time they put into the event to make my experience the best as possible.”