Helping US teens navigate reproductive health information and services safely and confidentially

Project:
Asking for a Friend

Location:
USA

Funders:
Lefkofsky Family Foundation
Los Angeles County - Essential Access
California Wellness Foundation

Category:
Sexual & Reproductive Health
HIV/AIDS

Challenge

Despite living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, young people in the United States face significant barriers to access essential sexual and reproductive health information and services.

Young people lack access to accurate, supportive, and appropriate information and resources that can equip them to make informed choices about their sexual health and wellness. In school, sex education curricula vary widely from state to state, leaving almost half of youth with little to no information on birth control in sex education, including contraception, STIs, HIV/AIDS, gender, and sexuality.

With inadequate information and resources, young people have difficulty making informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive lives. 75% of pregnancies among 15-19 year-olds in the US are unplanned, which is the highest among all high-income countries. Low-income youth and youth of color experience higher rates of unplanned pregnancies than the national average.

When seeking care, youth struggle to find trusted providers who can provide them with the products and services they need in a friendly, appropriate and affordable manner. They often face discrimination, prejudice, and stigma from providers and cite low confidentiality of care as a major barrier to accessing care.

Finally, states’ legal environments surrounding sex education, and sexual and reproductive health vary widely. People living in states with more restrictive legal environments struggle to access products and services they need, including contraception, abortion, and routine preventative care.

Innovation

Working in partnership with youth in the US, YLabs is building a new digital platform, Asking for a Friend, where actionable decision-support meets frictionless service wayfinding, while addressing youth’s main access barriers: cost, confidentiality, and knowing their rights.

Asking for a Friend is the first digital one-stop-shop platform designed to help young people learn about, find, and access safe reproductive healthcare, no matter where they live.

Asking for a Friend supports young people to make informed decisions about their sexual health and wellness through three main features:

• Interactive decision support tool to choose reproductive health services and products

• A geo-locator wayfinding tool to find available services locally and beyond

• Educational content in youth-friendly language on the topics youth care most about

Once the platform is built, we will test it with young people across the US and leverage existing partnerships to launch a social marketing campaign reaching young people at scale.

Next Steps

YLabs is currently building and testing the Asking for a Friend platform with youth in the US. If you are interested in learning more about this sector-transforming initiative, please reach out to contact@ylabsglobal.org.

To support the creation and continuation of this unique platform, click on the button below to donate.