Specifications include, but are not limited to: The Office of Adolescent Health and Youth Development (OAHYD) seeks quotes for Life Plans/Tools Kits for use in OAHYD programs. The goal of the Life Plans is to provide a new tool to adolescents through their providers to promote discussions about health and goal setting. The Life Plans/Tool Kits will serve as a guide to better serve and understand adolescent health and youth development. The intended audience for the Life Plans will be Massachusetts adolescents age 12 to 24. It is anticipated that at least three different Life Plans will be developed ensuring age/developmental appropriateness and to meet the needs of our diverse adolescent population. It is also anticipated that the facilitators guide will be tailored by age group. Focus groups will be conducted with adolescents to explore what would motivate them to talk spontaneously after having a conversation with their provider-- about issues affecting their health and future in what circumstances they would be most likely to talk about these issues and what social or other cues would prompt them. Focus groups should seek to elicit what communication is appropriate reasons why adolescents would or would not talk to their friends and families about the importance of their health and goal setting and whether the Life Plans are helpful. Using the findings from focus groups, Life Plans will be developed that combine the emotional pulse points with factual information. This integration will seek to facilitate a stronger partnership between those providing services (counselors, educators, nurses) and program participants. Word of mouth plays a vital role in influencing choices and behaviors.i To effectively raise awareness of the importance of health and goal setting, adolescents will need to both see their friends make positive changes and talk about making these changes. These messages should be tested and validated through additional focus groups and follow up surveys, then developed with attention-grabbing graphic design. The design should reinforce the emotional, logical and factual components. Findings from focus groups will assist in this process. The Office of Adolescent Health and Youth Development (OAHYD) goals are to support linkages with health care providers, policy and program developers, youth, families, state agencies, and community networks. Three programs are housed in OAHYD. 1. Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) is a science-based teen pregnancy prevention program funded in select high-risk communities in Massachusetts to provide evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention services to at-risk youth. Community-based agencies and community health centers are replicating science-based programs to prevent primary teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV/AIDS, and early sexual activity among youth ages 10-19. These programs are culturally competent, science-based, medically accurate, and are designed to prevent teen pregnancy through comprehensive programming delivered through a public health approach. 2. The Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) promotes healthy behavior, responsible decision-making and increased opportunities for high risk youth. The health outcome goals of the program are: increased abstinence and delayed onset of sexual activity among pre-adolescent and adolescent males and females reduced rates of youth engaging in health-related risk behaviors including, but not limited to, risky sexual behaviors and decreased incidence of teen births, STIs, and HIV infection. 3. MA Pregnant and Parenting Teen Initiative (MPPTI) addresses the needs of pregnant and parenting teens, operating out of schools and community-based organizations to provide pregnant and parenting teens (male and female) with wraparound services including age-appropriate medical care, health education, and social and emotional support services, as well as family support designed to help address concerns in the teens' home environment. Each pregnant or parenting teen will be supported in developing an individualized graduation, GED or alternative education plan. Key areas of focus for this model will include infant care and nurturing skills, life skills training, workforce development and financial literacy education. A monitoring and assessment component will collect, analyze and report on client- and community-level data in several key areas.
