Sexual and reproductive health care

This brief summarizes available research on seven dimensions of access to sexual and reproductive health care. Our goal is to inform youth-supporting professionals about the complexity of access for youth who have experienced the child welfare and/or justice systems, homelessness, and/or disconnection from school and work (i.e., opportunity youth).

Young person sitting on a bench.

This brief summarizes available literature on strategies for trauma-responsive affirming care in a way that is relevant for administrators, managers, and professionals whose work centers youth with experience in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, youth experiencing homelessness, and opportunity youth. We intend for these strategies to be relevant in both medical settings and youth-supporting organizations. In this brief, we define “trauma-responsive affirming care” as a strengths-based approach that responds to the ways in which traumatic experiences intersect with gender identity and sexual orientation—as well as with other identities such as racial/ethnic identity, socioeconomic status, and immigration status—to impact a person’s needs.

Opportunity youth are young people ages 16 to 24 who are not working nor enrolled in school. They are a diverse group who come from different backgrounds, races/ethnicities, and communities and who have varying strengths, resources, and needs. This infographic highlights key findings from Activate’s analysis of the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) of opportunity youth using the National Survey of Family Growth.

Using LGBTQ+ Affirming, Trauma-Responsive Care to Connect Youth to Sexual and Reproductive Health Services

This resource is designed for youth-supporting professionals—especially case managers—who provide direct care services to young people who experience the child welfare or justice systems, homelessness, or disconnection from school and work. (Throughout this resource, we refer to this group of youth simply as “young people.”) Case managers are critical gatekeepers to information about sexual and reproductive health (SRH) for these young people and are responsible for making referrals and helping them access SRH services and resources.

The resources included in this explorer were designed specifically to support professionals who work with young people involved in the child welfare or juvenile justice systems, youth experiencing homelessness, and opportunity youth.

Activate created a Wish List of strategies for creating resources for youth-supporting professionals who work on behalf of youth with experience in the child welfare system, the justice system, youth experiencing homelessness, and/or opportunity youth. If you are somebody who creates resources for youth-supporting professionals, we hope you incorporate these strategies into your work. Throughout the resource creation process, use the checklist below as a guide for assessing whether the strategies have been incorporated into your resource.