Activate: The Center to Bring Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Research to Youth-Supporting Professionals supports the Office of Population Affairs’ mission to promote adolescent health and prevent teen pregnancy by bridging the gap between research and practice. In other words, Activate translates research into practice by creating research-based resources for use by professionals who support young people experiencing the child welfare and/or justice systems, homelessness, and/or disconnection from school and work (i.e., opportunity youth).
Child Trends leads Activate, in partnership with Chapin Hall. Activate is funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Population Affairs (OPA). OPA initially funded Activate from 2020 through 2022 and, in 2022, made the decision to fund Activate again through 2026.
Meet the Activate Team
Child Trends is the nation’s leading nonprofit research organization whose mission is to conduct research to improve the lives of children, youth, and families. As the lead agency on this project, Child Trends focuses on adolescent sexual and reproductive health, youth involved in the child welfare and justice systems, and opportunity youth. For more than 40 years, policymakers, professionals, and other researchers have relied on Child Trends’ rigorous research and evaluation to improve policy and practice.
Chapin Hall is a nonprofit research and policy center affiliated with the University of Chicago that focuses on building actionable knowledge to improve the well-being of children, youth, families, and communities. Chapin Hall has made major contributions to the current state of knowledge about child welfare systems and services, the impact of interventions, and the outcomes of youth in foster care. Chapin Hall is also a nationally recognized leader in youth homelessness research.
Activate is also supported by a Research Alliance of researchers, youth-supporting professionals, young people, and other subject matter experts.
Activate’s Objectives
Activate researchers and partners use three objectives to guide their work creating easily accessible, research-based adolescent sexual and reproductive health resources for youth-supporting professionals.
- Gather, synthesize, and disseminate information about effective and promising adolescent sexual and reproductive health promotion policies and practices.
- Equip youth-supporting professionals with consistent and accurate resources to support their work with youth who experience the child welfare and/or justice systems, homelessness, and/or disconnection from school and work (i.e., opportunity youth).
- Facilitate dialogue about adolescent sexual and reproductive health between researchers and youth-supporting professionals.