Organizational Capacity Building for Sexual Health Promotion

ABSTRACT

We present an organizational capacity building program that is a systemic approach to training professionals, creating organizational policies and practices, and enhancing the physical environment with materials about sexual and reproductive health. The evaluation of four different organizations showed increases over six months in: staff reports of administrative support for providing materials and referrals to clients, as well as having sexual health conversations with clients; positive staff attitudes about, and preparedness for, providing sexual health information; and knowledge about sexual health. All were sustained at twelve months. Environmental enhancement with educational materials and condom distribution also increased.

KEYWORDS:

• Evaluation
• professional training
• organizational capacity building
• sex education

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Meg Barnette, Haydee Morales, and Carissa Rountree for their support and assistance with this project. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc.

Funding

This project was supported by grants from the DeMartini Family Foundation, the Leon Lowenstein Foundation, and the New York Community Trust.