Child and Adolescent Research and Evaluation Program

The objective of this project is to provide training and technical assistance to support the Administration for Children & Families’ Family and Youth Services Bureau’s Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention grantees. Specifically, this project seeks to provide training and resources to enhance service quality, ensure fidelity of program implementation and appropriateness of adaptations of evidence-based models and to enhance grantee skill sets to reduce adolescent pregnancy, prevent sexually transmitted infections, and prepare youth for adulthood. Training is provided individually, in small groups, and in skills-based sessions as well as through peer-to-peer learning. This project also includes the development and delivery of an annual grantee conference, bringing together over 600 grantee attendees for several days of learning and networking.

RTI developed The Exchange, an interactive website for APP program grantees, partners, and stakeholders to learn, connect, and create materials to increase the visibility and impact of their efforts. The website is designed to share evidence-based information translated in ways that grantees can readily apply in their work to improve adolescent health. Resources on The Exchange include tip sheets, infographics, interactive digital products, webinars I and TED-style talks. The Studio (winner of the 2017 Digital Health award) allows grantees to customize infographics, tip sheets, and web badges with their own logos and messaging to share with their communities. Resources on the Exchange have received a number of awards including a Telly award and a 2021 National Association of Government Communicators’ Blue Pencil & Gold Screen award.

In 2011, the Kansas Health Foundation invested funds to make Kansas the first state to implement a statewide Let’s Move! model to promote physical activity in schools. RTI worked with the Foundation to conduct an initial formative and process evaluation and conducted a series of quantitative and qualitative evaluation activities to assess the effects of the program on attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors relating to the promotion of physical activity in schools between 2015-2020.

Overall, the results from the evaluation suggested that the program is having a positive effect on the promotion of physical activity in Kansas schools and revealed that program participants overwhelmingly believe the program has allowed Kansas schools to be at the forefront of supporting physical activity for students.