Power to Decide Calls for Applications for its Innovation Next Program

(Washington, D.C.) — Power to Decide, the campaign to prevent unplanned pregnancy, announced the launch of the third round of its Innovation Next program. Made possible with support from the HHS Office of Adolescent Health, Innovation Next is a unique accelerator program aimed at redefining adolescent sexual health for the 21st century through a focus on technology-enabled ideas.

This year, five new teams will be selected to participate in the program. Each team will receive a $70,000 award to apply Design Thinking to the development of an innovative, technology-based sexual health intervention for teens. Applications will be accepted through January 2, 2019 and winners will be announced in February 2019.

“Since the launch of Innovation Next in 2015, we have supported 15 teams through the process of developing human-centered, technological solutions to the teen pregnancy prevention challenges they are facing,” said Katherine Suellentrop, Vice President of Programs, Power to Decide. “Issues previously addressed have included improving sex education for rural students, helping pediatricians discuss sexual health with their patients, and encouraging conversations about sex and contraception between Spanish-speaking parents and their children. This year, we hope to build on our past success by seeing applications from teams that represent diverse backgrounds and whose experience with underserved communities will help bring unique approaches to meeting the needs of all teens.”

The goal of Innovation Next is to enable early innovation to ensure that young people have the information and access to services necessary to decide if, when, and under what circumstances to get pregnant and have a child.