Since 2007, through various funded projects, Healthy Teen Network has partnered with Baltimore City in support of adolescent sexual and reproductive health. Current projects are part of Baltimore’s Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative (TPPI), which is situated within Baltimore’s larger strategic initiative, B’more for Healthy Babies (BHB).

B’more for Healthy Babies is a public/private partnership driven by the Baltimore City Health Department with support from the Family League of Baltimore and HealthCare Access Maryland. BHB brings together communities, organizations, and resources with the vision of healthy, full-term babies born ready to thrive in healthy families. Since its launch in 2009, this Initiative has made great strides for the people of Charm City, and to recognize these efforts, Healthy Teen Network awarded BHB a Spirit of Service Award in 2015.

B’more for Healthy Babies demonstrates the importance of a holistic, or Youth 360°, approach to improving health outcomes. BHB addresses factors at policy, community, relationship, and individual levels because “simultaneous and integrated action on several levels is more powerful at changing health outcomes than action on one level alone.” Focusing on high-impact areas across these levels, such as smoking cession, substance use treatment, family planning, home visiting, family literacy, nutrition, primary health care, mental health care, domestic violence intervention, and more, has ensured the success of the Initiative.

This May, commonly celebrated as Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month, we invite you to share the ways in which you are moving beyond prevention to health promotion. B’more for Healthy Babies is one example of a city’s efforts to collaborate across agencies. Healthy Teen Network is sharing some of the ways we’ve collaborated with various Baltimore city agencies to join this initiative. Healthy Teen Network Senior Manager, Deborah Chilcoat, of our Capacity Building and Evaluation Department, oversees our various Baltimore City projects. The timeline below (click here for a higher resolution image) presents a visual summary of partnerships and projects, and the project summaries below give a bit more detail.

How do you work to move beyond prevention to support and empower young people to lead healthy lives? Comment below!