New Pathways for Adolescent Health
Our Adolescent Health division is proud to have served over 500 youth and families in 2024 with a robust portfolio of programming! We found joy in returning to many longstanding partner sites and celebrated several new relationships. In addition, we helped build capacity among youth-serving professionals around the world.
Our team kicked off the year strong with programming at 11 local schools and community-based organizations as a part of a six-state collaborative funded by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Population Affairs called Sexual Health for Adolescents Rooted in Equity (SHARE). SHARE revolves around the two evidence-based programs listed below. In addition to our local implementation, we had the opportunity to expand our programming beyond the greater New Orleans area, traveling twice to Houma and once to Shreveport in partnership with Bayou Region Parent Support and the 318 Foundation, respectively.
1. Linking Families and Teens (LiFT)
LiFT is designed to foster safety and offer communication best practices for teens and their supportive adult(s).
2. INclued
INclued is a comprehensive sexuality education intervention that considers the full spectrum of youth identity and offers guidance to navigate reproductive healthcare.
In addition to the SHARE collaborative, our team continued to refine two original IWES trauma-informed sexuality education curricula:
Creating a Future Together (CrAFT): The CrAFT curriculum is designed for youth aged 11-19 and it focuses on sexual and reproductive health as well as mental health and emotional wellness, all while using a human rights approach. In August, staff traveled to Kingston, Jamaica, to train licensed mental health providers from the University of the West Indies, Mona, on how to facilitate CrAFT in their community. We are excited to continue developing this partnership and collaborate further with our colleagues in Jamaica to adapt CrAFT to the Jamaican context. Click here to watch a recap of the training!
Are You Ready?: The Are You Ready? curriculum is designed for youth aged 14-21 that are currently in or at risk of being involved with the juvenile legal system or child welfare system. It is uniquely designed as an entertainment education (EE) intervention based on an original narrative short film that we recently created — Happy Birthday, Leonard — and it contains content on sexual health, healthy relationships, and mental health. In 2023 we created and piloted the first edition of the curriculum, then this year, in conjunction with our Research & Evaluation division, our Adolescent Health team reviewed the materials for trauma sensitivity and inclusivity. The new iteration of the curriculum was piloted in July, and now we have entered into full scale implementation to assess Are You Ready?’s effectiveness as a part of a new study entitled the Film Learning Experience (FLEx). FLEx began in late September and will continue into early 2027. Since we began recruitment this fall, over 70 youth have completed the eligibility screener to express interest in participating in the study.
We are overjoyed to have served so many youth and families this year, and we are especially grateful to our partners — both long-standing and new visionaries — who play a vital role in our efforts. Our profound gratitude goes out to our adolescent health champions at each partner site; we could not reach a single youth without their creative thought partnership, extensive logistical support, and steadfast resilience. As we look forward to 2025, we’re excited to see our FLEx study reach its full potential! We anticipate that at least 100 youth will express interest by the new year, and we have the capacity to accommodate 1,850 youth throughout the study.