Teen Access and Quality (TAQ) Initiative

CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health supported three organizations in the 2015-2020 Teen Access and Quality Initiative (TAQ) cooperative agreement to 1) improve the quality of publicly funded health centers’ adolescent sexual and reproductive health services and 2) improve adolescent access to sexual and reproductive health services if needed.  The latter was accomplished by working with youth-serving organizations to refer and link young people to care, many of which served young people from groups that have disproportionately high rates of adverse reproductive health outcomes, such as foster care or juvenile justice organizations. Funded organizations also promoted health centers’ services to increase awareness among young people in the local community.

Awardee: Sexual Health Initiative for Teens North Carolina (SHIFT NC)– Durham, North Carolina

SHIFT NC’s All Together Now: Making Health and Referral Systems Work for Young People worked to increase access to and uptake of contraceptive and reproductive health services for young people. Through this intervention, SHIFT NC provided and coordinated technical assistance to increase the youth-friendliness of Durham’s Title X providers, federally qualified health centers, and school-based health centers. SHIFT NC also developed a linkage and referral network with youth-serving organizations to reach young people experiencing the greatest disparities. Through this 5-year project, All Together Now focused on improving the quality and availability of youth-friendly health services, developing and strengthening formal referral networks to increase youth access to care, and increasing use of health care systems and effective contraceptive methods by young people.

Awardee: Mississippi First, Inc.–  Coahoma, Quitman, and Tunica counties, Mississippi

Mississippi First, Inc. implemented Focused Pregnancy Prevention for Mississippi Teens (Focus4Teens), which included health center and youth-serving organization partners in the Mississippi Delta region. Partners included federally qualified health centers and Title X clinics, as well as youth-serving organization partners consisting of school districts, a mental health center, and community-based organizations. In this 5-year initiative, Focus4Teens worked to build the capacity of health center partners to provide youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services and increase the number of young people accessing and receiving these services. Referral systems were developed to link young people to care and to increase awareness of health services in the community.

Awardee: Georgia Primary Care Association– Chatham County, GA

The Georgia Primary Care Association (GPCA) implemented Healthy Teens, Healthy Savannah, partnering with federally qualified health centers, Title X clinics, and health departments, as well as schools, juvenile justice, and other youth-serving organizations. By engaging a broad range of local partners and expert technical assistance and training providers, GPCA focused on needed system wide changes in the region. This included increased capacity to provide youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services, development of referrals systems to increase the number of young people accessing sexual and reproductive health services, and increased community awareness of reproductive health services available in the community.