OPA Grant Programs Innovating Together

Innovation refers to a community-driven and disciplined process of finding solutions to some of our most complex public health challenges. At the HHS Office of Population Affairs (OPA), it also reflects a broad spectrum of new or adapted products, programming, strategies, approaches, interventions, policies, and practices that propel our mission of advancing health across the reproductive lifespan. OPA embeds innovation values and methods across all our initiatives, but we especially promote it in and across our Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) and Title X family planning grant programs.

Today, we are pleased to present our new webpage on Innovation in OPA Grant Programs and unveil our supplemental issue of Prevention Science showcasing innovative interventions with significant potential to contribute to the field and broaden its understanding of promising and effective approaches to advancing adolescent sexual health. 

Jump to a Section in this Bulletin: 

• Innovation in OPA Grant Programs
• Prevention Science Supplemental Issue on Evidence from the TPP Program's Experiment with Innovation
• Spread the Word with These Posts

Innovation in OPA's Grant Programs

OPA funds grants, cooperative agreements, and prize challenges that support community-based public health innovation. In May 2023, we convened 50 innovation teams from the TPP program, Title X family planning program, and OPA's research and evaluation grants to build relationships, workshop innovations, and fine tune design skills. We produced four showcase videos from that event.

Watch our compilation video to learn more about how OPA integrates innovation into our grant programs. Watch the other three video shorts to learn more specifically about innovations for:

• Engaging and supporting families
• Advancing adolescent health equity
• Improving health care access and service delivery

Check out our Innovation in OPA Grant Programs webpage to learn more about OPA’s innovation initiatives.

Prevention Science Supplemental Issue: Evidence from the TPP Program's Experiment with Innovation

OPA is excited to share the Special Issue on Evidence from the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program Experiment with Innovation, our first-ever journal supplement focused on innovation in the TPP program. Since its inception nearly 15 years ago, the TPP program has experimented with multiple uniquely structured cohorts of innovation and demonstration projects (i.e., Tier 2) that have yielded critical insights into equitable and effective public health innovation, while also serving as a highly productive catalyst of evidence-based TPP innovations for scale.

Our special supplement encompasses 15 articles from innovation grant recipients over the years, highlighting critical findings related to innovation impacts, implementation science, network development, evaluation-readiness, intervention development, and more. It also includes an introduction from OPA that explores how the TPP program adapted and refined its approach for fostering dynamic innovation-to-scale projects, as well as a special commentary from the Partnership for Public Service.

Explore all the open access articles below: 

• Innovation to Impact: Introduction to the Special Issue on Evidence from the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program Experiment with Innovation
   
• Developing Strategies to Monitor and Evaluate a Network Approach to Facilitating Innovations in Sexual Health Education Programs for Youth with Disabilities: Lessons from Year 1 of the SexEdVA Disability-Inclusive Sexual Health Network (DSHN)
   
• Sexual and Reproductive Health Education for Youth with Intellectual Disabilities: a Mixed Methods Study of Professionals' Practices and Needs
   
• Innovation in Sexuality and Relationship Education in Child Welfare: Shifting Toward a Focus on Ongoing Conversations, Connection, and Consent
   
• Using Human-Centered Design Strategies to Identify Unmet Adolescent Sexual Health Wants and Needs
   
• Catalyzing Technology-Based Innovation in Teen Pregnancy Prevention: an Implementation Model and Findings from a Human Centered-Design Initiative
   
• Adapting a Counseling-Plus-mHealth Intervention for the Virtual Environment to Reduce Sexual and Reproductive Health Risk Among Young Women with Depression
   
• "I Need to Get My Culture Back": Youth and Provider Perspectives on Integrating Culturally Based Approaches into Sexual and Reproductive Health Programs for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Youth Experiencing Homelessness
   
• Addressing Evaluation Barriers with Early Innovation Development for Adolescent- Focused Sexual and Reproductive Health Intervention
   
• Implementation Fidelity and Theory-Informed Dose Effects of a Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program for Native American Youth
   
• Opportunities and Challenges to Linkage to Housing in the Context of a Sexual and Reproductive Health Program for Youth Experiencing Homelessness
   
• Comparing Virtual and In-Person Implementation of a School-Based Sexual Health Promotion Program in High Schools with Large Latino Populations
   
• Randomized Trial of a Sexual Health Video Intervention for Black and Hispanic Adolescent Females
   
• High School FLASH Sexual Health Education Curriculum: LGBTQ Inclusivity Strategies Reduce Homophobia and Transphobia
   
• Assessing the Effectiveness of Respecting the Circle of Life Project on Condom Use and Contraception Self-efficacy Among American Indian Youth
   
• Subgroup Analyses of Girl2Girl, a Text Messaging-Based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program for Sexual Minority Girls: Results from a National RCT
   
• Toward an Effective Innovation Framework for Federal Grant-Making: an Exploration into OPA's Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program

Spread the Word with These Posts

X/Twitter

• Innovation at @HHSPopAffairs refers to a community-driven and disciplined process of finding solutions to some of our most complex public health challenges. https://opa.hhs.gov/innovation
• @HHSPopAffairs embeds innovation values and methods in all they do, but especially promote it in and across their TPP and Title X grant programs. Learn more. https://opa.hhs.gov/innovation

LinkedIn/Facebook

• Innovation at the Office of Population Affairs (OPA) refers to a community-driven and disciplined process of finding solutions to some of the most complex public health challenges. It also reflects a broad spectrum of new or adapted products, programming, strategies, approaches, interventions, policies, and practices that propel their mission of advancing health across the reproductive lifespan. Learn about how OPA embeds innovation into its Teen Pregnancy Prevention and Title X grant programs. https://opa.hhs.gov/innovation
• The HHS Office of Population Affairs (OPA) released 17 new journal articles in a special supplement of Prevention Science that discusses innovations by Teen Pregnancy Prevention grant recipients to reduce teen pregnancy disparities and advance the field of adolescent sexual health. Learn more. https://opa.hhs.gov/innovation

Newsletter 

OPA Grant Recipients Innovating Together
Innovation at the Office of Population Affairs (OPA) refers to a community-driven and disciplined process of finding solutions to some of the most complex public health challenges. It also reflects a broad spectrum of new or adapted products, programming, strategies, approaches, interventions, policies, and practices that propel their mission of advancing health across the reproductive lifespan. OPA released 17 new journal articles in a special supplement of Prevention Science that discuss innovative interventions by Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) grant recipients to reduce teen pregnancy disparities and advance the field of adolescent sexual health. Learn about TPP and Title X grant programs.