Does talking to the Rotary Club matter: Findings from stakeholder interviews in a community-wide teen pregnancy prevention initiative

Many community public health initiatives include activities focused on educating elected officials, Rotary Clubs, faith leaders, and other community groups.  Often referred to as secondary stakeholder groups, as opposed to primary stakeholders who implement or are the beneficiary of public health activities, these groups are considered important for advocacy and sustainability efforts. Not much is known in the literature about the effectiveness of stakeholder education.  As one of eight project sites, the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina (APPCNC) works in partnership with Gaston County North Carolina to implement a multi-component, community-wide teen pregnancy prevention initiative supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Office of Adolescent Health. Over the course of four years, project leaders provided 145 oral presentations to approximately 100 organizations on teen pregnancy prevention approaches. This session will present findings from interviews with 25 individuals from 19 organizations who attended two or more of these presentations. The purpose of the interviews was to ascertain if attending the presentations led to changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to their roles in teen pregnancy prevention. Additional questions focused on participant perceptions of effective messages and their likelihood of advocating for future teen pregnancy prevention efforts. Findings include an increase in participants’ support for comprehensive approaches and an array of behavior changes. This session will present sampling methods, analysis approach, and results.  This session will discuss how project leaders used the results to inform project sustainability strategies.