Rockville, Md. – Early childbearing can have significant health, social, and economic impacts on young parents and their children. Accordingly, finding ways to improve the circumstances of expectant and parenting young families and address their diverse needs has been a long-standing priority of the federal government, including the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Population Affairs (OPA). OPA contracted Abt Global to identify successful strategies and lessons learned from the Pregnancy Assistance Fund (PAF) grant program, which for the past nine years has funded states and tribal organizations to provide a network of services to support young families.
Building on the work of earlier studies, under this project, Abt will provide insight into challenges and effective strategies to ultimately inform service providers working with expectant and parenting young families. The study will include a review and synthesis of past and current program data, and the development of briefs and corresponding in-depth case studies on topics of interest to stakeholders. Abt will also disseminate the information through conference presentations, webinars and infographics to ensure that study findings reach a range of audiences. The goal is to ultimately improve programs and services so they can better meet the diverse needs and improve the well-being of these young families.
“This contract with OPA provides a great opportunity to combine our expertise in youth and families, implementation science, data analysis and communications,” said Abt’s project director, Meredith Kelsey. “We look forward to helping OPA identify and build on its successes in serving young families.”
About Abt Global
Abt Global is an engine for social impact, dedicated to moving people from vulnerability to security. Harnessing the power of data and our experts’ insights, we provide research, consulting and technical services globally in the areas of health, environmental and social policy, technology and international development.http://www.abtglobal.com
Contact:
Eric Tischler
eric_tischler@abtassoc.com
(301) 347-5492