Child Trends, in partnership with Chapin Hall and Healthy Teen Network, will develop and disseminate research-based practice resources for professionals who work with youth through Activate: The Collective to Bring Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Research to Youth-Supporting Professionals (Activate). Activate is funded through a grant from the Office of Population Affairs (OPA) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Activate aims to bridge the gap between research and practice in support of OPA’s mission to prevent teen pregnancy and promote adolescent health and the development of positive assets and healthy behaviors. Activate translates research to practice by creating resources for use by professionals who work in systems with youth involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems (e.g., youth in foster care; youth on probation), youth experiencing homelessness, and opportunity youth (i.e., youth who are disconnected from school and work).

To guide the work, Activate maintains partnerships with a Research Alliance composed of researchers; professionals who work with or on behalf of youth; and young people, and other collaborators.

Professionals often lack easily accessible, research-based adolescent sexual and reproductive health resources in their work. To address this need, Activate will:

• Gather, synthesize, and disseminate information about effective and promising adolescent sexual and reproductive health promotion policies and practices,
• Equip professionals in youth-supporting systems with consistent and accurate resources, and
• Facilitate a dialogue on adolescent sexual and reproductive health between researchers and youth-supporting professionals.

Activate will create timely, accessible, and evidence-based resources using a research-based process to translate research to practice and human-centered design to prioritize the needs and motivations of key audiences. To maximize utility, Activate will use a range of traditional and innovative strategies to disseminate resources through multiple formats and will pair resources with training and support to help professionals implement the resources effectively.

Visit the website here, https://activatecollective.org/.