195 - Creating an Implementation and Evaluation Model of Meaningful Youth Engagement in Sexual and Reproductive Health Programming: A Youth-Focused Group Concept Mapping and Storytelling Journey

Abstract Information: In 2022, the Youth Engagement Network, which was funded by the Office of Populations Affairs, undertook a group concept mapping (GCM) process to create a conceptual framework for youth engagement in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) programming. GCM is a systematic process of brainstorming, sorting, and ranking ideas from a wide variety of individuals to create common meaning. We involved over 100 individuals from across the United States, with 60 of them being between the ages of 16 and 22. Focusing only on the voice of the 60 youth participants, we identified 6 Principles of Meaningful Youth Engagement in SRH programming: Relatable and Compassionate Program Facilitators, Diverse and Inclusive Content Delivery, Comprehensive and Empowering Sex Ed Content, Co-Exploration of Content, Youth-Centered Co-Creation of Programming, and Trauma-Informed and Healing-Centered Space. These principles have been vetted with other groups of young people across the US and are being used to frame discussions and storytelling related to programmatic needs, create checklists for program development and evaluation, and determine starting points for improving SRH programs. In this session, we will describe the group concept mapping process and how we involved youth in that process and vetting of our final products; present the 6 principles; explore how the principles can be used for assessing programmatic needs (such as via an organizational readiness assessment) and evaluating (through principles in practice checklists) meaningful youth engagement SRH programs.

Relevance Statement: There is extensive interest in the field of adolescent health to engage youth in the development, delivery, and evaluation of health programs; however, few programs meaningfully engage youth across each of these phases. Many agencies lack the resources and capacity to engage youth as leaders in programs that impact their personal development and health. Further, the measures and methods used across studies to explore the effectiveness of youth engagement (YE) are inconsistent; thus, YE practices have not been systematically documented or empirically tested, leaving a gap in supporting organizations, adults and youth who wish to learn from best practices. A unified, youth-informed framework that focuses on youth-adult partnerships in program co-creation, evaluation, and leadership processes as well as the infrastructure needed to create and sustain meaningful opportunities for YE enhances our ability to identify, apply and systematically assess the extent to which strategies are effective at engaging youth. We embarked on a journey that took over a year and involved over 100 young people from various regions of the United States to create such a framework. First young people took part in a systematic process to identify what meaningful youth engagement looks like, and then, through a series of discussion and storytelling groups, young people provided feedback on the principles, told personal stories of why the principles were important to their sexual health education, and provided recommendations of ways to improve the field as a whole. The group concept mapping process can be used by evaluators to create logic and theoretical models, and the resulting principles provide a framework for assessing programmatic need and evaluate program development and implementation.