Using Innovation as a Tool to Advance Reproductive Justice in Adolescent Health Programs
By Christina Ortiz, MPH | January 16, 2025
Historically, addressing pregnancy among adolescents has focused primarily on prevention and has not elevated the voices and prioritized the needs of young people who are most impacted by sexual and reproductive (SRH) oppression.
Reproductive justice is defined as “the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.” This framework, developed by SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, seeks to address and dismantle the intersecting systems of oppression that create barriers to health, autonomy, and reproductive freedom.
In the past, young people – especially youth of color and those from Black, Indigenous, and low-income communities – have experienced forced or coercive sterilization polices, which have denied them the right to control their own reproductive futures. For example, long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) were recommended to young people without full informed consent or presented as the only birth control option.
While LARCs can be beneficial, some programs pressured young people – particularly those from historically marginalized communities – into these methods, disregarding their personal preferences. More recent challenges include federal defunding of critical programs like the Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program and Title X, which have long provided resources, education, and SRH services to young people.
Without these historical and current injustices having been completely resolved, innovation is still essential to advance our field forward, particularly supporting young people navigating their health and wellbeing.
Innovation Hubs as Catalysts to Foster Growth in Adolescent Health
With support from The U.S Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Population Affairs, The Reimagining Young People’s Sexual Health Equity (RYSE) Innovation Hub is one of six Innovation Hubs funded to address this critical gap in adolescent sexual health. Each Hub supports a community of innovators nationwide to pilot, conceptualize, test, and disseminate youth-serving sexual health innovations.
The Hubs serve in incubator, accelerator, and hybrid modalities:
Incubator: A space to generate innovative approaches to advance greater health equity
Accelerator: A space to test, refine, and package innovative approaches for impact evaluation and/or scaling
Hybrid: The RYSE Innovation Hub is the only hybrid hub, meaning that we can support sexual health innovations that are in either incubator or accelerator stages. RYSE supports cohorts of innovation teams through individualized training and coaching sessions, collaborative opportunities with youth innovation advisors, and tangible tools and strategies to advance their work each year.
Centering Equity in Selecting Innovation Development Teams (IDTs)
The RYSE Hub is driven by our vision that all young people will have access to the personal agency, resources, and opportunities needed to achieve their best possible sexual well-being. In this spirit, the team met in person earlier this year to co-create our priorities for selecting IDTs, with a strong focus on uplifting marginalized youth and communities. Additionally, we partnered with our Youth Innovation Advisors to develop the Hub’s brand identity and select our IDTs. We are proud to announce that in September 2024, RYSE selected four IDTs for our first cohort.
- Teen Talk; Dream Youth Clinic
- A youth led video podcast dedicated to dispelling myths around sexual and reproductive health, created in partnership with medical staff at the clinic.
- Sankofa Knowledge Exchange; Atlanta, Georgia
- A series of training courses for youth and service providers that focus on the unique experiences, challenges, and strengths of system-involved Black youth and families.
- Text-SAFE; Texas A&M School of Nursing
- A text messaging service to empower survivors of sexual assault navigating through the medical and legal system.
- YouthCHAT; University of Minnesota Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Health
- A youth engaged training program for health professionals working with adolescents, designed to create safe and supportive environments in clinical settings.
Next Steps and Vision from our Innovation Development Teams
Whether you're interested in best practices in sexual health innovation and youth engagement, application and funding opportunities for next year, getting involved with RYSE as a subject matter expert, or learning more about our project, we've got you covered!
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Want to learn more about how to integrate reproductive justice principles in adolescent sexual health programs? Download our tip sheet here.
Learn more about how RYSE Innovation Hub supports IDTs by checking out our innovations page.
Each IDT is committed to integrating reproductive justice in their innovation design. Hear directly from our teams!
Christina Ortiz, MPH (she/her) is the Innovation Support Manager at ETR, where she supports a community of innovators in developing youth-driven approaches to promote young people's sexual health and reduce teen pregnancy and STIs through the RYSE Innovation Hub. Christina joins ETR from New York City with over 15 years of experience as a facilitator and advocate passionate about sexual and reproductive health, sexual violence prevention, community-informed programming, and youth engagement.
