Community capacity building in CDC’s Community Coalition Partnership Programs for the Prevention of Teen Pregnancy

Promoting Science‐based Approaches to Teen Pregnancy Prevention: Proactively Engaging the Three Systems of the Interactive Systems Framework

“…The 13 Communities Project was conducted from 1995 to 2002 and was a demonstration project to see if building and strengthening teen pregnancy prevention coalitions would result in improved community level capacity to plan and implement effective and sustainable teen pregnancy prevention programming (Cassell et al 2005). However, CDC learned from the 13 Communities Project that even though coalitions were important partners in prevention, the model had limited success in actually changing prevention practice at the community level (Chervin et al 2005) and many of the partnerships created in the project were not sustained by the end of the project (Kramer et al 2005). Although the findings of the 13 Communities Project were somewhat discouraging to the many partners who had worked tirelessly to build community level capacity, the project offered valuable lessons about bridging research and practice.…”

Lessons from the Front Lines: Factors that Contribute to Turnover among Youth Development Workers

“…Smaller organizations may benefit by collaborating with other organizations with more experienced workers. While community coalitions often bring together agency executives (Chervin, et al, 2005), it is less common for them to convene youth development workers and their direct supervisors to share ideas and resources. These interactions might help fill some of the need for mentoring and support.…”

“…These organizations might consider working together to provide a larger pool of workers and opportunities for advancement. Unfortunately, based on qualitative data from all 13 of the Coalition Partnership Communities, high turnover was common among all teen pregnancy prevention and other youth serving agencies, leaving a limited pool of experienced workers (Chervin, et al, 2005).…”

Having the Best Intentions is Necessary but not Sufficient: What would Increase the Efficacy of Home Visiting for Preventing Second Teen Pregnancies?

“…Yet, 8.3% conceived within six months and the one-and two-year pregnancy rates were 18.4% and 28.1%, respectively. The intervention might prevent more pregnancies if the nurses intervened more vigorously and in ways that could impact the pervasive misperception that childbearing has little to do with the obstacles that prevent teen parents from leading the safe, economically self-sufficient lives most say they want (Blum, 1998;Chervin, 2005;Gallup-Black & Weitzman 2004;Ginsberg et al, 2002).…”

“…However, there is nothing about these activities that necessarily makes teenagers want to avoid conception. Poor, inner-city American teenagers, their parents, and community leaders have the same educational, career, and life-style goals as their less sociodemographically deprived counterparts (Blum, 1998;Chervin, 2005;GallupBlack & Weitzman 2004;Ginsberg et al, 2002;JumpingEagle, Sheeder, & Stevens-Simon, 2005). However, since they do not believe that adolescent childbearing is an impediment to achieving these goals, pregnancy prevention is given a low priority rating (Blum, 1998;Chervin, 2005;GallupBlack & Weitzman 2004;Ginsberg et al, 2002).…”