title: Implementation of Community-Wide Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiatives: Focus on Partnerships.
abstract: Seeking to reduce teen pregnancy and births in communities with rates above the national average, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Adolescent Health Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, developed a joint funding opportunity through which grantees worked to implement and test an approach involving community-wide teen pregnancy prevention initiatives. Once these projects had been in the field for 2.5 years, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff developed plans for a supplemental issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health to present findings from and lessons learned during implementation of the community-wide initiatives. When the articles included in the supplemental issue are considered together, common themes emerge, particularly those related to initiating, building, and maintaining strong partnerships. Themes seen across articles include the importance of (1) sharing local data with partners to advance initiative implementation, (2) defining partner roles from the beginning of the initiatives, (3) developing teams that include community partners to provide direction to the initiatives, and (4) addressing challenges to maintaining strong partnerships including partner staff turnover and delays in implementation.
authors.affiliation: Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia. Electronic address: htevendale@cdc.gov.
authors.forename: Heather D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Tevendale
authors.affiliation: Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia.
authors.forename: Taleria R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Fuller
authors.affiliation: Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia.
authors.forename: L Duane
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: House
authors.affiliation: Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia.
authors.forename: Deborah L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Dee
authors.affiliation: Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia.
authors.forename: Emilia H
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Koumans
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000379:methods*; D005006:Ethnicity; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006284:Health Plan Implementation / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence / Q000517:prevention & control*; D055818:Public-Private Sector Partnerships; D012736:Sex Education / Q000379:methods*; D014481:United States
keywords: Community partnerships; Pregnancy in adolescence; Primary prevention