What's Happening

By Deb Levine, MA, & Jamia Wilson, MA | February 20, 2014

We are the president and executive director of YTH (Youth+Tech+Health), an organization committed to advancing the health of youth and young adults through technology, and we’ve got a pitch for you: if you work with young people, you can improve effectiveness by sharing leadership with them.

We mean sharing leadership in a substantive way—giving over the reins for a good part of the journey. Sound impractical, or impossible, or scary? It’s not. You can take that leap.

At YTH, we’ve recently implemented a model of intergenerational leadership ourselves. We fully expect this new leadership structure to expand our opportunities, build our potential, and shape the direction of our organization into the future.

By Elizabeth Schroeder, EdD, MSW | January 22, 2014

I’m the executive director for Answer, a national organization dedicated to providing and promoting unfettered access to sexuality education for young people and the adults who teach them.

There is so much misunderstanding today about what sexuality education is. Most people tend to think it only has to do with preventing pregnancy and infections. But when we refer to “sexuality education,” we’re talking far more holistically. This enables us to promote overall sexual health and education, while also ensuring that young people know how to prevent an unintended pregnancy and STDs.

We believe strongly that sexuality education should start early, meaning it should be basic at younger ages and build in complexity as a young person grows. It’s an egregious mistake when lessons on sexuality—whether at home or in school—don’t begin until the teen years.

By Pamela Anderson, PhD | January 15, 2014

Those of us at ETR who work in the area of sexual and reproductive health agree that healthy sexual development is an issue of human rights, and that coercion-free, violence-free relationships are essential to healthy sexuality. For over 30 years, we’ve pursued research that helps us better understand what promotes sexual health, as well as what interferes with it.

In recent years, our research has led us to bring more emphasis to the context in which sexual risk behaviors may occur among youth, particularly with respect to the importance of romantic relationships.

By ETR | January 13, 2014

Here are our picks for this month's videos and media - content that makes us look, think and learn. Watch the broccoli vs. kale smackdown. Learn more about Americans' involvement with video culture. Check out the amazing infographics produced by Information is Beautiful.

By Amy Peterson, MSc | January 9, 2014

Late last year, several ETR colleagues and I presented at the Healthy Teen Network’s annual conference in Savannah, Georgia. The theme was “Embracing Innovation: Combining Science with Creativity to Improve Adolescent Health.” About 30 participants joined ETR staffer Bruce Weiss and me as we discussed strategies for addressing unintended pregnancy and STIs among young people through the dual use of long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs) and condoms.

By Lisa Unti, MPH | November 20, 2013

Have you ever wondered if the work you do makes a difference? Beyond the paperwork and meetings, the mandates and requirements… What does making a difference look like?

Many of us have multiple roles as parents, mentors and health and education professionals. My own perspective as a mother and researcher working in the field of sexual and reproductive health and evaluation for over 20 years informs and shapes my work. The intersection of these multiple roles gives all of us extraordinary opportunities to make a difference. Here’s one that came to me recently.

By B.A. Laris, MPH | November 13, 2013

How often have you wished you had a good quote or interesting comment to help make a point in a report or proposal? Have you ever needed to test materials for comprehension or readability? Do you want to understand people’s reactions to your programs or services?

Focus groups are a great way to gather in-depth descriptive data that can illustrate nuances of opinions in a way surveys can’t … but is the data real?

By Maura Minsky | October 23, 2013

I'm the Co-founder and Executive Director of Scenarios USA, an educational nonprofit based in Brooklyn, New York. We use writing, the arts and film production to build confidence, leadership and advocacy skills among youth regarding sexual and reproductive health.

We believe that education is more powerful when studnts can actually see themselves in the content they're learning. Social context is the door we ask them to walk through, inviting them to look at race, class, gender, sexual orientation, access and ability, and examine how these things relate to their lives and their communities. These factors all play a role in decision making and the ways people use information.

By Jessica Markham | October 16, 2013

Here at ETR’s Tobacco Education Clearinghouse of California (TECC), we provide tobacco education and advocacy materials to educators and health care providers across the country. We also offer research assistance to programs in California.

I spend a lot of time reading information about tobacco. I catalog articles, reports and other tobacco-related materials, including infographics. When you spend this much time deep in a topic, you learn a lot. I’m especially astounded by the environmental impact of cigarette toxins. I’ve been interested in environmental issues for a long time, but didn’t realize just how harmful discarded cigarette butts actually are.

By John Shields, PhD, MSW | September 25, 2013

I’m the director of ETR’s portfolio of program evaluation projects with the San Francisco Unified School District’s Student, Family, and Community Support Department (SFUSD-SFCSD). ETR has been working in close partnership with SFUSD for over twenty years now—eleven during my tenure.

One of the most important components of our work with the SFUSD has been our bi-annual administration and analysis of the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). The YRBS provides high-quality data on the health risk behavior of SFUSD’s middle and high school students. In partnership with SFUSD, we’ve taken steps to use the power of the YRBS to address the critical health and wellness needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth.

By Matt Cherry | September 18, 2013

Many organizations and companies are looking at the possibility of migrating existing face-to-face trainings into the e-learning environment. There are some compelling reasons to do so. E-learning can be more affordable, accessible and consistent for trainees across a broad geographic range.

It’s important to follow established best practices for training design and implementation. I like to use the ADDIE model—Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate. By following an established instructional design methodology such as ADDIE, you can produce an effective online course that meets your organizational objectives.

By Jamie Sparks | August 28, 2013

I’m the Coordinated School Health Project Director with the Kentucky Department of Education. When it comes to program, policies and curricula, Kentucky is a local control state—the state sets up the standards, and the local districts determine how to meet them.

We’re a CDC-funded project, and we think very highly of comprehensive school health education. We’re taking active steps to foster more buy-in for this approach in districts throughout Kentucky. We’re building the foundations for an ongoing discussion with our districts on how to make comprehensive school health education work.

By Pam Drake, PhD | August 21, 2013

When we want to evaluate how well an evidence-based program (EBP) works, one of the important variables we need to measure accurately is implementation fidelity. This variable helps confirm that the program is being presented as intended, and that different educators are doing essentially the same things in teaching the program.

With good implementation fidelity, there’s a better chance others can replicate the program’s outcomes. Schools and communities that show good implementation fidelity for a program can affirm they’re taking the correct steps to reach health goals.

Implementation fidelity also helps us interpret outcomes—for example, why an intervention did or didn’t work. We can assess how practical the program activities are, or refine programs by determining which components lead to the outcomes we want.