Youth Health Statistics...and more!

Update from ACT for Youth | April 2025

ACT for Youth Resources

Youth Statistics: Health

On the newly updated Health page in our popular Youth Statistics section, we bring you selected stats on access to health care, diet, physical activity, sleep, mental health, violence, and mortality. Can't find the exact fact you're looking for? Dive deep into the resources listed in the endnotes for much more. ACT for Youth.

Youth Statistics: Health

Research and Resources

STI Dashboard - New York

Now Live! This interactive dashboard features data visualizations of key trends of three major reportable sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in New York State: chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis. The dashboard makes statewide and county-level data more accessible and usable to service providers, policy makers, researchers, public health practitioners, and all residents of New York State. CUNY Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health and New York State Department of Health.

NYS Statistics

How to Cultivate Purpose in Teens

Programs can support youth in cultivating purpose, and when they do, the results can be powerful. This article describes what an evaluation of one such program tells us about purpose in adolescence. Cornell University, Evidence-Based Living blog.

Blog Post

Early Adolescence: A Window of Opportunity for Educators to Support Positive Mental Health

This report offers recommendations and resources for educators to support students based on four key areas that are especially important to positive development during early adolescence. National Scientific Council on Adolescence, UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent.

Research Brief

Call-In Cards for Anti-Black Racism Action

Anti-Black racism work is a continuous journey of transformation that requires ongoing reflection, learning, and unlearning by individuals, organizations, and systems. Developed for the youth work sector, the Call-In-Cards provide a tool to connect understandings of anti-Black racism to anti-Black racism action. Each card features a scenario on one side and four reflection prompts on the other. The scenarios detail Black youth’s experiences of anti-Black racism in different areas of their lives. YouthREX.

Reflection Cards and User Guide

The Change-Makers’ Guide to Grammar: 10 Tips to Win Hearts and Change Minds

Using inclusive language shows we care about the unique communities around us and expresses a dedication to remaining in relationships with them. These tips and the extensive Words Matter manual provide you with practical, real-world strategies to use inclusive, affirming language. Healthy Teen Network.

Change-Makers' Guide (Tips)

Words Matter (Manual)

Professional Development

Healthy Teen Network Annual Conference

In Solidarity

CONFERENCE

October 6-8, 2025

Atlanta, Georgia

Earlybird registration is now open for the Healthy Teen Network annual national conference, always an impactful professional development opportunity. The conference goal: to build the capacity of attendees to provide high quality adolescent health programs and services so that all young people are supported and empowered to lead healthy sexual lives. 

Conference Information & Registration

Consent Conundrums: Substances, Sexting, and STIs

Cardea

WEBINAR

Friday, May 9, 2025

2:00 ET

"Just say no" has long been a repackaged cornerstone of prevention education broadly but often fails to produce the desired outcomes. While personal responsibility is part of consent, it's not always a powerful influence on behavior, especially when the behavior is meeting other needs. In navigating consent grey areas, a reality-based, harm reduction-informed approach may better address the complexities of youth decision-making and garner better results.

This webinar is part of Cardea's Consent in Context webinar series for sex educators.

Schedule: Consent in Context Series

This newsletter was developed with funding provided by the New York State Department of Health Bureau of Perinatal, Reproductive, and Sexual Health. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the ACT for Youth Center for Community Action and do not necessarily represent the views of the New York State Department of Health.