Enhancing teen pregnancy prevention in local communities: capacity building using the interactive systems framework

Getting To Outcomes (GTO), an innovative framework for planning, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining interventions has been shown to be effective in helping community-based organizations (CBOs) introduce science-based approaches into their prevention work. However, the Interactive Systems Framework (ISF) suggests that adopting innovations like GTO requires a significant amount of capacity building through training and technical assistance (T/TA). In this study, 11 CBOs and three schools in South Carolina entered into a 3 year program of intense and proactive T/TA based on the ISF to learn how to apply an adaptation of GTO (Promoting Science-Based Approaches-Getting To Outcomes, PSBA-GTO) to their teen pregnancy prevention programs. Using semi-structured interviews, the partnering organizations were assessed at three points in time, pre-T/TA, 12 months, and post T/TA (30 months) for their performance of the steps of GTO in their work. The seven organizations which participated in T/TA until the end of the project received an average of 76 h of TA and 112 h of training per organization. Interview results showed increased performance of all 10 steps of PSBA-GTO by these organizations when conducting their teen pregnancy programs. These results suggest targeted and proactive T/TA can successfully bridge the gap between research and practice by using a three part delivery system, as prescribed in the ISF, which relies on an intermediary prevention support system to ensure accurate and effective translation of research to the everyday work of community-based practitioners.