Project Description
This project expands reach, builds capacity, and scales up evidence-based programs offering positive youth development and sexuality education to address health disparities in the most vulnerable areas across rural Eastern North Carolina. The project partners with interdisciplinary professionals to connect with youth most in need within community-based organizations, juvenile justice, foster care, and supportive school settings. The project uses a mixed methods approach to monitor and evaluate implementation, scale-up, and sustainability from the perspective of different key stakeholders, including adolescents, parents and guardians, youth service providers, and agency leaders.
Project Goals
This grant aims to reduce teen pregnancy and improve adolescent health in high-risk rural communities in Eastern North Carolina by strengthening operational and programmatic capacity for evidence-based programs that focus on positive youth development, pregnancy prevention, healthy relationships, and mental health.
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Project Description
This collaboration aims to advance research on the relationship between economic well-being, wealth, adolescent functioning and mental health. By collecting data on specific assets and debts relevant to lower-resourced families—such as payday loans and criminal justice debt, often overlooked in wealth surveys—the study seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of wealth disparities and racial and ethnic inequalities among adolescents, a critical developmental period as they approach adulthood. This joint grant between Duke University and the University of Pittsburgh will facilitate data collection at both institutions.
Project Goals
By investigating how the lack of wealth, beyond just income, may contribute to risks in healthy adolescent development, the research aims to shed light on critical societal issues. Furthermore, it will contribute to a deeper understanding of how racial and ethnic disparities in wealth impact the life chances of teenagers and their families as they transition into adulthood.
Related Findings and Resources
- Net Worth Poverty and Child Development Research Brief
- Net Worth Poverty and Child Development Socius (September 2022) doi:10.1177/23780231221111672
- Childhood Wealth Inequality in the United States: Implications for Social Stratification and Well- Being RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences (August 2021)
- Net Worth Poverty in Child Households by Race and Ethnicity, 1989–2019 Journal of Marriage and Family (November 2020)
Project Description
As part of the Get Ready Guilford Initiative, a system of Community Navigation has been developed to provide a universal continuum of support beginning prenatally and continuing into early childhood. Ready for School, Ready for Life is building a connected, innovative system of care for Guilford County’s youngest children and their families. The goal of this system of care is for every child born in Guilford, NC to enter kindergarten on track – ready for success in school and in life.
Community Navigation is designed with both a
- “Top down” approach of identifying, engaging, and aligning broad array community agencies supporting families with young children; and a
- “Bottom up” approach of engaging individual families, assessing need, and connecting to tailored services based on both need and preference.
Project Goals
The Durham Navigation Study is a randomized control trial to evaluate the impact of Community Navigation on outcomes for young children and their families. Community Navigation will be offered prenatally, plus annual assessments at 12-, 24-, and 36-months, and intermediate check-in calls at 6-, 18-, and 30-months. Outcome evaluation interviews will be conducted at birth, 15 months, 27 months, 39 months, 51 months and 63 months.
Related Projects
- Guilford Collaborative Toward Universal Reach and Impact During the Prenatal Period
- Integration of Family Connects and HealthySteps in Guilford County
- Family Connects for Get Ready Guilford Initiative
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has been shown to improve maternal and child health and reduce public spending on health. However, many eligible families do not receive it. This study used 2014 Survey of Income and Program Participation data to explore predictors of EITC receipt among Hispanic families, an understudied segment of the eligible population. With new data collected on state policies, researchers found that states’ granting of drivers’ licenses to undocumented people, availability of government information in Spanish, and employer mandates to inform employees were associated with greater EITC receipt among all income-eligible families, including Hispanic families. These findings showcase ways in which information and outreach at the state level can support the equitable receipt of tax refunds and similar types of benefits distributed through the tax system.