During a community day organized by the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, in partnership with community leaders and the local schools, children and adolescent performers have an opportunity to shine, while helping to deliver important information about HIV/AIDS.

Photo credit: Eric Bond/Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation

YouthPower is a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) project dedicated to expanding the evidence base for what works in positive youth development (PYD) and applying improved approaches across programs and sectors. YouthPower seeks to improve the capacity of youth-led and youth-serving institutions and engage young people, their families, communities and governments so that youth can reach their full potential. The project consists of two complementary contracts: YouthPower: Implementation and YouthPower: Evidence and Evaluation.

• YouthPower: Implementation focuses on the design and implementation of PYD programming and policies; capacity-strengthening of youth-serving institutions, including governmental and civil society organizations; and promotion of increased youth engagement in development efforts.
  • YouthPower Action is the Washington, DC-based YouthPower: Implementation contract that pilots and implements diverse program interventions and approaches that have an impact on adolescents and young adults. YouthPower Action is supporting the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through its ongoing work in the following areas:
    • Engaging older orphans and vulnerable adolescents in Mozambique
    • Reviewing existing and piloting promising approaches for mentoring adolescent girls and young women at increased risk of HIV/AIDS
    • Identifying life skills most relevant to sexual/reproductive health, violence prevention and other cross-sectoral youth outcomes
    • Reviewing and piloting youth-friendly mobile phone approaches to support keeping adolescents in HIV/AIDS care and treatment
    • Identifying and disseminating effective interventions that can increase HIV testing and linkage to treatment among young people

• YouthPower: Evidence and Evaluation focuses on research and evaluation of youth programming; assessment to inform program design; and dissemination of knowledge in the field of PYD.
  • YouthPower Learning is the Washington, DC-based YouthPower Evidence and Evaluation contract that researches, evaluates and applies program interventions and approaches that have an impact on adolescents and young adults. YouthPower Learning is supporting PEPFAR through its ongoing work in the following areas:
    • Creating a learning hub for enhanced youth-related best practices as well as PYD and cross-sectoral considerations
    • Disseminating promising practices to address the specific needs of adolescent girls and young women and adolescent boys and young men in HIV prevention, testing, linkage to treatment and care activities
    • Evaluating and recommending ways to integrate cross-sectoral programming into youth programming
    • Fostering a cross-sectoral youth learning network through communities of practice

YouthPower Resources

• Mentoring Interventions and the Impact of Protective Assets on the Reproductive Health of Adolescent Girls and Young Women Research Publication
• Systematic Review of Positive Youth Development in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
• Positive Youth Development Measurement Toolkit
• Key Soft Skills for Cross-sectoral Youth Outcomes
• Six Tips for Increasing Meaningful Youth Engagement in Programs
• Achieving 90²: Young People, HIV Testing Services and Linkage to Treatment Journal Supplement
• Visit the YouthPower website