Federal Resources

CDCynergy is a multimedia CD-ROM used for planning, managing, and evaluating public health communication programs. The tool was originally created for use within CDC. In addition to the basic edition, CDC program and partners have created additional versions of the tool focused on specific health topics. Copies of the CD can be ordered from the Public Health Foundation.

CYFERnet is a national network of Land Grant university faculty and county Extension educators working to support community-based educational programs for children, youth, parents and families. It provides program, evaluation and technology assistance for children, youth and family community-based programs and is funded as a joint project of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's NIFA and the Cooperative Extension System

Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Student (WSCC),  is recommended by CDC as a strategy for improving students' health and learning in our nation’s schools. These site outline the rationale and goals for WSCC, provide a model framework for planning and implementing WSCC, and offer resources to help schools, districts, and states improve their school health programs.

This 10-page document outlines typical stakeholder groups in public health programs, explains why stakeholders are important to evaluations and their role in evaluations, and also includes a checklist for steps in engaging stakeholders as well as a number of worksheets to help identify key stakeholders and determine what program related issues matter to them.

This course, from the University of Wisconsin Extension, provides a holistic approach to planning and evaluating education and outreach programs. It helps program practitioners use and apply logic models - a framework and way of thinking to help us improve our work and be accountable for results. You will learn what a logic model is and how to use one for planning, implementation, evaluation or communicating about your program.

This is a 58-page report which introduces the CDC’s framework for program evaluation and its key concepts.  It provides in-depth outline of the 6 six steps in program evaluation (engaging stakeholders, describing the program, focusing the evaluation design, gathering credible evidence, justifying conclusions, and ensuring use and sharing lessons learned), as well as 4 standards for effective evaluation (utility, feasibility, propriety, and accuracy).

Grants.gov is a secure, reliable entry way to discretionary federal grants from multiple agencies. Applicants can use a single comprehensive site to discover and apply for opportunities from all 26 federal grant-making agencies.

CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health provides evaluation technical assistance to Funded Partners through a variety of evaluation resources and tools.

This guidance document, developed in collaboration with the National Initiative to Improve Adolescent Health, is designed to help guide state and local agencies and organizations through public health processes that address important adolescent health and safety issues

This document is a "how to" guide for planning and implementing evaluation activities. The manual is based on CDC's Framework for Program Evaluation in Public Health, and is intended to assist state, local, and community managers and staff of public health programs in planning, designing, implementing, and using the results of comprehensive evaluations in a practical way.

These tip sheets, developed by Penn State Extension, are teaching tools that apply scientific and communication principles to an extension evaluation problem in the field.

Usability.gov is a one-stop source for government web designers to learn how to make websites more usable, useful, and accessible.

CDC’s Clear Communication Index Widget is a research-based tool designed to help agencies communicate clearly with their intended audiences. Using four introductory questions and 20 scored items drawn from scientific literature, agencies can use the index to inform the design of a new communications product, assess the clarity of a product before or after public release, and/or foster collaboration between writers or reviewers. 

This website from CDC provides information and data about teen pregnancy. Sections of the site target resources for parents, guardians, and health care providers. It also includes videos, podcasts, reports, a social media tool kit and other resources focused on teen pregnancy and teen pregnancy prevention.

CDC provides a range of social media tools to promote your teen pregnancy prevention efforts. This quick reference guide can be used as a companion to the CDC Social Media Toolkit for Health Communicators  [PDF- 3.76MB], and specifically highlights a number of social media tools with credible, science-based teen pregnancy prevention messages from the CDC. These free, easy-to-use communication tools can help expand the reach of your health messages and help increase public engagement.

This manual presents a summary of the teen pregnancy prevention strategy, Getting to Outcomes (GTO). GTO is a science-based approach for how to set goals, consider and plan for a prevention program, develop and conduct process and outcome evaluation, and learn how to improve and sustain a program’s intended outcomes.

Data from this Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from January 2012 offers insight into current statistics about teens not using contraception, teens who give birth,  the risks of early childbearing, and why this is a public health issue. The data was collected from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), which collects state-specific, population-based data on maternal attitudes and experiences before, during, and shortly after pregnancy.

The National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (NYRBS) monitors priority health risk behaviors that contribute to health and social problems among youth and young adults. This report shows trends, from the data gathered from NYRBS, in sexual behavior among youth and young adults from 1991 to 2009.

This report illustrates the percentage of births among teens that were preterm, organized by race and ethnicity. Preterm births declined for each racial/ethnic group, except among non-Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islander teens, where the change was not significant. In 2014, the percentage of births that were preterm was higher among non-Hispanic black and non-Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islander teens than among other groups. 

This report highlights recent data that show, from 2007 to 2014, the preterm birth rate decreased for all age groups, and the overall birth rate for teens and women aged 20-24 years also decreased. The changing distribution of maternal age might indicate success of programs to prevent teen and unintended pregnancies.