“It was only me against the world.” Female African American Adolescents’ perspectives on their sexual and reproductive health learning and experiences while in foster care: Implications for positive youth development

Positive youth development (PYD), while embraced in many sectors of youth work, has faced criticism for its primary emphasis on positive personal change and adaptation, without a strong emphasis on social justice and culture, especially relevant for African Americans. Additional models of PYD addressing these conceptual gaps have emerged, however few explicitly address anti-Black racism and historical trauma impacting African American youth development. In this paper, expanded models of PYD, specifically Empowerment-Based Positive Youth Development (EBPYD) and Critical Positive Youth Development (CPYD) will be examined for their strengths and limitations in responding to (1) anti-Black racism and (2) historical trauma among African American youth. Key strategies of these models, such as promoting prosocial behavior and civic engagement will be reconceptualized and expanded to account for developmental needs imposed by historical oppression and contemporary racism against African American youth. Implications for PYD programing will be discussed.

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Building evidence on what works (and what does not): practical guidance from the World Health Organization on post-project evaluation of adolescent sexual and reproductive health projects

Health Policy and Planning ◽

10.1093/heapol/czab028 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Susan Igras ◽

Marina Plesons ◽

Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli

Keyword(s):

Reproductive Health ◽

World Health Organization ◽

Sexual And Reproductive Health ◽

Project Evaluation ◽

World Health ◽

The Public ◽

What Works ◽

The World ◽

Practical Guidance ◽

Health Organization

Abstract Over the past 25 years, there has been significant progress in increasing the recognition of, resources for, and action on adolescent health, and adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) in particular. As with numerous other health areas, however, many of the projects that aim to improve ASRH are implemented without well-thought-out plans for evaluation. As a result, the lessons that projects learn as they encounter and address policy and programmatic challenges are often not extracted and placed in the public arena. In such cases, post-project evaluation (PPE) offers the possibility to generate learnings about what works (and does not work), to complement prospective studies of new or follow-on projects. To fill the gap in the literature and guidance on PPE, the World Health Organization developed The project has ended, but we can still learn from it! Practical guidance for conducting post-project evaluations of adolescent sexual and reproductive health projects. This article provides an overview of the guidance by outlining key methodological and contextual challenges in conducting PPE, as well as illustrative solutions for responding to them.

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