The Goals of Take Action for Adolescents™

Goal 1: Eliminate Disparities to Advance Health Equity

Part of the vision outlined by Take Action for Adolescents is that every young person can attain a state of good health and well-being, regardless of their circumstances. Good health and well-being include reducing the burden of disease, injury, and violence and having the opportunity and space to reach one’s fullest potential. Beyond a healthier population, promoting health equity can support the prosperity of U.S. adolescents and advance a more just society.

The conditions or systems and environments in which people are born, grow, live, work, play, worship, and age are called the “social determinants of health.” These determinants include economic stability, education access and quality, health care access and quality, neighborhood and built environment, and social and community context. Significant differences in social determinants of health exist between racial and ethnic groups, which can contribute to poor health outcomes and health disparities. The social determinants need to be addressed in order to create environments that promote health and well-being for all.

This goal aims to achieve health equity by eradicating systemic disparities, addressing social factors that affect adolescents across their lifespan, and ensuring all young people can attain a state of good health and well-being. This work should be grounded in cultural humility, with the goal of shifting power imbalances and developing mutually beneficial and person-centered partnerships to improve adolescent health and well-being. Acknowledging and addressing the multiple forces that shape social inequalities and discrimination will strengthen approaches to improve health equity.

Goal 2: Increase Youth Agency and Youth Engagement

In line with current research on adolescent development and other organizations, Take Action for Adolescents supports the needs of young people between the ages of 10 and 24. Over this time span, the roles adolescents have in society change. These changes include increasing expectations to be able to manage their health, finances, and general life as well as to contribute positively to their communities. Increasing youth agency and youth engagement involves providing young people with age-appropriate opportunities to advocate for their needs. People working with or creating systems that serve youth should find opportunities to build young people’s skills in navigating various systems.

Increasing youth agency and youth engagement benefits young people by building their capacity to become independent adults. This increased capacity can boost their confidence as they transition into adulthood. This goal also supports the creation of better programs and improves equity by shifting power to the people directly impacted by the systems. Young people know what they need and can be powerful advocates for their rights and individual decisions. Programs and services are often designed and implemented without input from young people. Involving young people in co-creating programs and policies builds their confidence, competence, and leadership skills and supports self-determination while providing opportunities to improve their own health and the health of their peers.

Goal 3: Ensure Access to Safe and Supportive Environments

The physical, mental, and emotional environments that make up where young people live, go to school, work, and play greatly affect their health. Some of these effects are direct and obvious – such as the health challenges that can come from being exposed to lead or experiencing violence. Other effects are more complex and subtle. For example, the quality or availability of grocery stores can affect a young person’s food security. Another example is how an adolescents’ positive connections with adults can serve as a buffer to the effects of negative or traumatic experiences.

Adolescents, especially those at younger ages, have limited ability to choose their environments (e.g., their school is likely assigned, limited transportation may mean limited options for recreation). For this reason, considering the natural and built aspects of the environment as well as the physical and emotional is important, especially for supporting the young people who face disproportionate risks associated with environmental hurdles like crime, violence, abuse, trauma, prejudice, and racism. Furthermore, emotional safety can encourage adolescents to meaningfully engage in systems.

Goal 4: Increase Coordination and Collaboration Within and Across Systems

All people, including adolescents, are complex. They have multiple needs and require different supports to be healthy. Take Action for Adolescents takes a whole-person approach that aims to address the physical, behavioral, social, and environmental aspects of a young person’s life and how those aspects are connected.

There is no single, coordinated mechanism to access services that promote health and well-being for adolescents. In fact, current funding and resources are often distributed through specific systems, each with their own rules that can be hard to navigate. However, coordination and collaboration across these systems benefits both young people and service providers. The American Academy of Pediatrics notes that coordination efforts are at the core of improving the quality of adolescent health care, and that integrated health care delivery systems may lead to greater community orientation and more explicit consideration of adolescents’ needs. A “no wrong door” set of policies that allows adolescents to connect to all the services needed regardless of where they enter into systems can support upstream prevention efforts that lead to better health outcomes. Beyond the benefits to young people, coordination and collaboration benefits systems and service providers by maximizing resources, reducing duplication of efforts, promoting quality and transparency, and creating and sustaining health equity.

Coordination and collaboration can occur in a variety of ways. It could look like putting services in one location to make it easier for adolescents to get care. Coordination also can look like streamlining or linking application systems to support referrals. Additionally, sharing data and greater communication can help programs be aware of each other’s efforts to strengthen collaboration and coordination. 

Goal 5: Expand Access to Health Care and Human Services 

Health care refers to prevention and treatment offered through the medical system and its providers while human services are supports that can help people meet their needs (e.g., the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, safe and supportive housing, Medicaid, programs that support people with disabilities, education, and training assistance). Studies have shown that the origin of most adult diseases can be traced back to childhood and adolescence. Additionally, most health care visits by adolescents are to get treatment for conditions or injuries that could have been prevented if found and addressed at an earlier, comprehensive visit. Access to both health care and needed human services support adolescents’ health now, which in turn can help them grow into healthy adults.

Where adolescents are and the resources available to them personally and their community can affect how easy it is for them to get health care or use human services. These factors can include things like the available health care and human services workforce in an area, distance between facilities (e.g., in rural areas), time to seek support, and familiarity with different services. Different models of providing health care and human services exist, including Federally Qualified Health centers, school-based health centers, community-based organizations, and even online providers. These different models offer potential solutions that communities can consider to address gaps in access. 

Improving access to preventive health care and human services requires collaboration and alignment of activities across federal, state, tribal, local, and territorial governments, and youth-serving providers and organizations. 

Goal 6: Strengthen Training and Support for Caring Adults

Having a positive connection with at least one caring adult is a large protective factor for many young people. Caring adults can include parents, legal representatives, and caregivers who make sure adolescents are healthy and safe, equip them with the skills and resources to succeed as adults, and instill cultural values. Teachers, coaches, mentors, other youth-serving professionals, and health care providers also can fill these roles.

The process of forming positive relationships and being a safe, supportive presence for adolescents, like any other task, requires knowledge and skills. Specifically, caring adults should understand the evolving developmental needs and abilities of adolescents so they can best support young people on their journey toward adulthood. Part of this understanding includes being aware of changes in young people’s relationships with adults as they age and gain greater independence and responsibility over their lives. Making high-quality information easy-to-find and offering training can build adults’ capacity to understand young people’s concerns and work with young people to make informed decisions that will help them thrive.

Beyond increasing knowledge and skills through training, supporting caring adults also includes ensuring that they have the time, bandwidth, and backing to be able to put that knowledge to use. The social determinants of health that affect adolescents may also affect their parents, caregivers, and/or legal representatives (e.g., poverty, transportation challenges, difficulty understanding complex systems). Professionals working with young people may be constrained by the available time, budgets, and/or work priorities to both learn skills and put them into practice.

People who care for and/or work with young people generally have good intentions. Parents, caregivers, and legal representatives; youth-serving professionals; and health care providers can be strong partners to each other and to adolescents. Building these adults’ capacity by providing information and supports can help them be a positive influence in young people’s lives.

Goal 7: Improve Health Information and Health Literacy    

Adolescents go through many physical, mental, and social changes in the ages between 10 to 24. Without information or context, these changes can feel scary, confusing, or alienating. Young people need to understand how their bodies work as well as how specific behaviors can affect their health now and into the future. They also need knowledge and skills to understand and navigate the many complex systems that provide support. Access to health information and improved health literacy can empower young people to make good decisions, advocate for themselves, and navigate complicated health care and human services (including services like health education, counseling, social work, and more). It will also help the caring adults in their lives provide informed guidance and support.

For health information to be accessible, it needs to be easily understood and easily found by the people it is meant to reach (e.g., young people; parents, caregivers, and legal representatives; non-health professionals). Adapting and updating existing materials can ensure that health information remains accurate and is culturally appropriate to different communities. The process of adapting and updating existing materials can be especially powerful if young people can share their perspectives and ideas. Making accurate health information available can also help reduce stigma around adolescent behaviors. Moreover, these efforts may better serve young people who are historically underserved by health care and human services systems.

In addition to providing information, it is also important to build health literacy – the skills needed to find, take in, and judge health information. There is a wide amount of information available online, some of which is either inaccurate or misleading. Health education for adolescents can support health literacy as well as guidance from trusted sources. Because of the important role trusted sources play in supporting adolescents, building the health literacy of caring adults is also important so they can feel comfortable talking about sensitive health topics.

Goal 8: Support, Translate, and Disseminate Research

It is important to support, translate, and disseminate research and data on adolescent health and well-being to advance policies, programs, and practices. 

While much research has been done, there is still more to learn about adolescents’ health, their experiences, and which programs and supports are most beneficial for them. It is especially important to build understanding of adolescent health topics where youth have had limited participation in research and/or have been underserved by health care and human services systems. The environments in which adolescents live continues to change as technology, demographics, and systems shift over time. Closing research gaps is essential to a national, data-driven effort to advance adolescent health and well-being.

Supporting, translating, and disseminating research involves reflecting on the full research process, from the questions posed and data gathered to how the findings are shared and put into practice. Research presents a unique opportunity for youth engagement and agency since many young people are eager to share their perspectives in all stages of the research process. Involving young people within research and data collection may support data accuracy and innovative research methods, improve dissemination, and identify ways to translate research so that it is easily understood.