Leadership Exchange for Adolescent Health Promotion

The Leadership Exchange for Adolescent Health Promotion (LEAHP) was a six-year technical assistance project that supported 13 multi-sector state teams in promoting adolescent health in schools. LEAHP was led by Child Trends and the National Coalition of STD Directors (NCSD), in partnership with the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE). The project addressed three priority areas related to school health: sexual health education, sexual health services, and safe and supportive environments. LEAHP was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Adolescent and School Health (CDC-DASH).

Background

Schools can play a critical role in shaping the health of adolescents. CDC-DASH’s What Works in Schools model is an approach to school-based health that has been shown to have positive effects on student health. It uses three strategies to support student health:

• Providing high-quality health education
• Linking students to needed health services
• Creating school environments that feel safe and supportive to all students

Evaluations of What Works in Schools over the years have shown that these efforts can improve mental health, reduce sexual risk and substance use, and reduce suicidality among students. Participating schools have also seen less absenteeism due to safety concerns.

CDC-DASH provides funding to local education agencies and consortia to implement What Works in Schools. State-level policies can affect local implementation efforts. The LEAHP learning collaborative was created to support coordination between state education agencies and state health departments to better support What Works in Schools. LEAHP state teams included representatives from state health departments, state education agencies, and their partners.

Project Goals

Throughout the project, LEAHP staff helped LEAHP state teams develop state-specific action plans related to the three strategies of the What Works in Schools model. In addition to supporting the development of these action plans, LEAHP staff sought to:

1. Build the capacity of state leadership teams to assess, develop, monitor, evaluate, and implement adolescent health policies related to sexual health education, sexual health services, and safe and supportive environments.
2. Facilitate access to experts at the national level with ties to policy, health, and education.
3. Strengthen state leaders’ knowledge and understanding of adolescent health issues.
4. Build networks through collaborative peer-to-peer learning opportunities to allow LEAHP state teams to share successes, challenges, innovations, and questions.

Timeline

LEAHP began recruitment in 2018 and launched its first cohort in 2019 with an in-person training. As such, the project and state teams were greatly affected by COVID-19. The timeline below highlights the evolution of the project.

• 2018: The National Coalition of STD Directors (NCSD), Child Trends, and the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) began developing the LEAHP model and resources such as state profiles. The team also assembled an Advisory Board and began recruitment.
• July 2019: In-person training for 1st LEAHP cohort (District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, and Wisconsin).
• January 2020: In-person training for 2nd LEAHP cohort (California, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah).
• February 2020: The COVID-19 pandemic and the public health emergency response disrupted schools and led to restrictions on in-person gatherings, requiring LEAHP to shift to virtual trainings.
• Summer/Fall 2020: Webinars held focused on communications, the use of telehealth, and building technical assistance structure.
• September 2020-May 2024: State listening sessions began and met quarterly, until May 2024.
• January-July 2021: With no in-person events, training was moved online including a refresher version.
• September-December 2021: Began a short-term Community of Practice on linking sexual health to other health topics.
• July 2021: Vermont joined LEAHP as the first virtual-only state team.
• July 2021-April 2024: Youth engagement community of practice began to meet quarterly, and ended in April 2024.
• October 2021: First Youth Engagement/Youth-Adult Partnership Public Panel was held, and  continued annually until October 2023.
• December 2021-March 2024: Public webinars began and were held quarterly, covering topics such as state policy basics, addressing discrimination for suicide prevention, school nurses, and substance abuse prevention.
• August 2022: State pairing sessions added to event lineup, based on feedback from states.
• July 2022: Iowa joined LEAHP.
• September 2022: Learning collaborative forum held to address misinformation and disinformation. North Carolina, Maryland, and New Jersey opted into additional TA on developing messaging packets over the coming year.
• May 2022: LEAHP coordinated with other CDC-DASH funded NGOs to deliver policy technical assistance to Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) around Gender and Sexuality Alliances (GSAs).
• May 2023: LEAHP presented with CDC-DASH funded NGOs, Advocates for Youth and American Academy of Pediatrics on cross-sector collaboration at STI Engage: Shaping the Nation’s Health in Washington, DC. Technical assistance providers traveled to Iowa for in-person action planning session.
• June 2023: LEAHP presented on a National Governors Association (NGA) panel on student mental health.
• September 2023: Held learning collaborative forum on partnership development to support state team rebuilding.

Core TA Approach

LEAHP staff used several strategies to support state teams:

• A strengths and capacities assessment
• An in-person (cohorts 1 and 2) or virtual training
• One-on-one technical assistance meetings
• Annual youth forum
• Quarterly communities of practice
  • Short-term during the pandemic: Linking sexual health and other health topics
  • Long-term: Youth engagement
• Webinars or state team forums
• Listening sessions between state teams and CDC
• Pairing sessions between state teams
• Written technical assistance product

Resources

• Building a Story With Data
• Seven Strategies for Telling Stories With Data
• Opportunities for State Leaders to Safeguard LGBTQ+ Students Learning, Connection, and Safety
• Engaging Parents and Caregivers Around Sex Education to Promote Youth Sexual Health
• Funding Approaches and Sources to Improve Adolescent School Health

Other info

Development of this resource was supported by cooperative agreement CDC-RFA-PS18-1807 with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The opinions and findings do not necessarily represent the views or official position of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.