Activate: A Participatory Approach to Translate Scientific Research and Build a More Evidence-Informed Workforce

Background and Purpose: This paper will introduce attendees to Activate: The Center to Bring Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Research to Youth-Supporting Professionals and the participatory processes researchers and other experts use to translate scientific research into practice resources. The Center aims to create research-based practice resources for professionals who support young people experiencing the child welfare and/or justice systems, homelessness, and/or disconnection from school and work (i.e., Opportunity Youth) and, ultimately, create a more evidence-informed workforce.

Methods: The research translation methods were informed by existing research translation processes and then established with input from expert informants, including youth-supporting professionals, youth, and researchers. These expert informants are engaged in each step from identifying practice resource needs and conception through the conceptualization, development, and dissemination of final practice resources. Methods follow a multi-step, participatory process grounded in principles of equity, cultural relevance, and medical accuracy. Youth members and the professionals who support them are critical to the research translation process. Youth have shared that the content and the language of each resource must relate to youth themselves because youth-supporting professionals use the language in their practice resources when speaking with youth.

Results: Teams of researchers, youth-supporting professionals, and young people follow a codified yet malleable model to create three products. The model starts with identifying and narrowing a sexual and reproductive health topic where there is a need for information and practice guidance, curating the existing research and resources in that topic area to assess what information is missing and potentially why there is a gap in resources, developing and disseminating a practitioner focused research summary based on a range of available, recent research, based on topics youth-supporting professional and young people say is missing and their perspectives about the value of the research in practice. The information from the research summary is then used to design and disseminate a technical assistance resource—a practice tool for youth-supporting professionals—and a training focused on the selected sexual and reproductive health topics.

Conclusion and Implications: This study can inform how researchers collaborate with research users and focal research populations and to identify research and practice needs and translate research to accessible tools that inform those needs. Working with the youth on whom this research is centered ensures the practice toolkits developed for youth-serving professionals will include skills and competencies most desired by youth.