POWER TO DECIDE SELECTS RECIPIENTS FOR FOURTH ROUND OF INNOVATION NEXT
(Washington, D.C.) — Power to Decide selected its fourth cohort of Innovation Next, a program made possible with support from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Population Affairs. Innovation Next is a unique accelerator program aimed at redefining adolescent sexual health through a focus on technology-enabled ideas to ensure that young people have the information and access to services they need.
The nine teams selected, which also participated in previous Innovation Next cohorts, are receiving funding to bring their existing innovations fully to market, to scale, or to prepare for a randomized control trial. The selected teams will continue to apply the design thinking approach in their projects.
“The teams selected have demonstrated an extraordinary commitment and unique understanding of how to best ensure young people have the support they need to decide if, when and under what circumstances to become pregnant,” said Ginny Ehrlich, CEO, Power to Decide. “For young people who are not seeking to start a family at this point in their lives, access to information and resources that best meets their needs is critical” said Ehrlich.
Since peaking in 1991, the teen birth rate has declined 70%. However, progress isn’t victory, and unplanned pregnancy rates for Latina and African American teens are roughly twice as high as compared to their white counterparts. These disproportionately high rates are a result of systems inequities that impact access to quality sexual health information and health care services. In addition, more than 19 million women in need of publicly funded contraception live in contraceptive deserts, where they do not have reasonable access in their county to a health center that offers the full range of contraceptive methods.
The following teams have been selected to be part of the 2019-2020 Innovation Next cohort:
- Healthy You, Healthy Future
- Layla’s Last Week
- Design Vagabonds
- okayso
- Real Talk
- ME Project
- Miss Morning After
- Bloom Science
- Young Parents United
To learn about the challenge each team is addressing, please visit our Innovation Next website.
Power to Decide is a private, non-partisan, non-profit organization that works to ensure all people—no matter who they are, where they live or what their economic status might be—have the power to decide if, when and under what circumstances to get pregnant and have a child. Please visit us at www.PowerToDecide.org or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
