Date: October 10th, 2019
By: James Smith
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Healthy Teen Network is celebrating 40 years of promoting better outcomes for adolescents and young adults. Over the past 40 years, many Board members, staff, donors, and professional members have contributed to our successes. Like so many of us who are devoted to mission-driven work, I am passionate about making the world a better place for all of us to live, learn, and grow. During my first few months here, I’ve been so inspired by Healthy Teen Network’s accomplishments. There is indeed a great deal to celebrate from our first four decades!
Reflecting Back on Our First 40 Years
We strengthen professionals.
As a membership organization, we understand the importance of being both responsive to the needs of youth-supporting professionals, as well as serving as a visionary that leads our members to the next advancement. We work collaboratively with our members to meet their needs. This is so important because we know when professionals are better prepared, we see increased positive outcomes for young people. Capacity building has always been the heart of our mission, and we will continue ensuring our members have the skills and information they need to provide quality sexual health education and services.
We stand with all young people.
From day one, when we were founded in 1979 as the National Organization for Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting (NOAPP), we have not only affirmed but often been the lone voice standing with young parents. And we’ve continued to push the field to embrace sexual and reproductive health as a social justice issue with public health impacts. Over the decades, we’ve built on our legacy of standing with all young people, such as youth living in foster care or LGBTQ+ youth, and moved beyond prevention in support of health promotion. We continue #StandingStrong because all young people have a right to a healthy future.
We lead in evidence and innovation.
We have led the use of evidence and innovation. Over the past 40 years, we have honed our approach, using lessons learned and evaluation results, to continuously improve and deliver the most effective training and resources to support high quality, evidence-based and innovative programs and services for youth. No matter the political climate, we champion evidence over ideology because young people have a right to quality sexual health education and services. Today, we have a wealth of research to inform how we can best achieve our goals, and we’re continuing to build on the evidence with new innovations, grounded in research, to meet the dynamic needs of young people and improve outcomes.
We have reason to celebrate, and we’re not done yet. What’s next for Healthy Teen Network?
Looking Forward to Our Next 40 Years
We must be holistic in our approach, addressing social determinants of health.
We call our holistic approach Youth 360°, and while it may not be a new concept, it continues to gain traction in our field. Since 2013, we have been leading the field in integrating a Youth 360° approach to address health disparities. This won’t change, but we need more. We know it takes time and support to make systemic changes, to establish new partnerships, and to leverage each other’s resources to better meet the many different needs of all young people.
We must leverage technology and innovation to improve access.
Technology opens doors and has the potential to expand access exponentially. Some people call this “mHealth,” which may include apps to access reliable information, online games that serve as sex ed programs, telephone services to provide consultations from healthcare providers, or prescriptions by mail. We already have many initiatives leveraging technology to improve access, such as Crush, the first and only smartphone-based digital tool proven effective at increasing young women’s sense of control to make decisions regarding their sexual behavior. Or Volt20, our interactive website walks youth through 20 questions so they can make a plan for a healthy future. And we’re helping members to the same through capacity-building events, such as the Design Challenge at our conference. We are working to continue this important work, using human-centered design thinking and rapid prototyping to develop solutions that can be implemented today to improve access.
We must support and empower all young people to thrive.
Our legacy, since our foundation in 1979, is #StandingStrong with all young people. Our nation’s young people face increasing adversity in today’s hostile political climate. The rights of LGBTQ+ youth are under attack. Young people who may be undocumented face uncertainty every day. Youth involved in systems of care face challenges accessing quality, consistent health care and sexual health education. And the list goes on. We will continue our efforts to ensure all young people are included in all our efforts.
We thank everyone—our members, staff, Board members, and funders—who has been a part of our accomplishments these past four decades! Please join us in continuing to support and empower all young people to thrive with a donation in celebration of our first 40 years and to support our new ventures.
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About the Author
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For twenty-four years, James B. Smith, MPA, President and CEO of Healthy Teen Network, has demonstrated progressive, successful leadership and program development of nonprofit organizations and private-public partnerships. James has dedicated his career demonstrates to effecting societal change. He believes that every person in the world has a purpose and destiny to fulfill, and each individual life is connected to the greater good of humanity. He is driven by making the world a better place for all of us to live, thrive, and grow.
