The University of Rochester Division of Adolescent Medicine has a tripartite mission: to train the professional leaders of the future in the field of adolescent health, to conduct cutting-edge research related to adolescent health conditions and service delivery, and to provide excellent specialty clinical services to youth in Upstate New York. We bring to the ACT for Youth Upstate Center of Excellence experience in training, evaluation and technical assistance for a wide variety of recipients in Monroe County, NY State and the nation. Several of the recipients of this support have developed and implemented models based on a theoretical framework underlying the asset building model for youth development. Others are engaged in addressing youth behavior change priorities and are part of NY state funding streams identified in the ACT for Youth as Community Development Partnerships (CDPs). In addition, we maintain an awareness of best practices in the literature and are prepared to assist CDPs in the identification and implementation of various community-based youth development strategies.

Richard E. Kreipe, MD is the co-principal investigator for the Upstate Center of Excellence at the University of Rochester. He is the Chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine and the Director of the interdisciplinary Leadership Education in Adolescent Medicine (LEAH) training program at the University of Rochester. Jonathan D. Klein, MD, MPH and Sheryl A. Ryan, MD are the other two University of Rochester co-investigators from the Center of Excellence. Dr. Klein is the Director of Adolescent Health Research and the LEAH technical assistance coordinator; he is involved in community, state and national research on health services and access to care for adolescents, with a special emphasis on teenage pregnancy and preventive services. Dr. Ryan is the LEAH Training Director and is actively involved in research on violence prevention, HIV prevention and the adoption of healthy lifestyles, using community-based educational interventions. Examples of our involvement in assisting community based agencies to address the goals of ACT for Youth of relevance for CDPs include:

Assets Survey

Dr. Ryan has collaborated with the Monroe County Health Director to develop and implement an assets-based assessment of middle school youth, which surveyed more than 5000 adolescents using the SEARCH Institute assessment tool. These data were used to bring together a community leadership coalition composed of the County Youth Bureau, the City School District and other youth-oriented agencies to set community priorities for youth development programs. These activities have also involved cross-training and funding stream integration across social services and health sources of state and local support.

CDC Pregnancy Prevention Coalition Partnership

Dr. Klein has served as the evaluation principal investigator for the CDC funded Rochester/Monroe Council on Teen Pregnancy Coalition Partnership (MCTP) grant. As such, he and the University of Rochester have developed a network of technical assistance, community, and program evaluation activities. Additionally, a major goal of the project is to develop sustainable technical support and evaluation capacity within community-based organizations.

United Way Community Outcomes

Dr. Klein is also leading an effort to create and pilot common youth asset outcome measures for all of the youth development programs funded by the Rochester/Monroe County United Way and the Youth Bureau.

For more information see the University of Rochester website.