This year, UP for Learning was fortunate to have funding, coaching, and other resources from the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP) through their Innovation Hub replication program that allowed us to partner with the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) on Getting to ‘Y’ (GTY) replication in Indiana. With staff from the IDOH’s Division of Maternal and Child Health and guidance from our AMCHP coach, as well as webinars and group sessions with other Innovation Hub grantees, we learned about best practices and key considerations in replication efforts and explored opportunities to pilot GTY in Indiana. 

Our focus in this work was capacity building for future implementation. In these efforts, we prioritized orientation and training on GTY for IDOH staff, who had not seen GTY in action before. Our hope was that through training, the team would be better equipped to understand what the program looks and feels like, know what is needed in order to bring it to life on the ground, build a network of partners across the state who could help with any replication effort, and consider the best ways launch pilot teams moving forward – and potentially build from there! 

In April, UP Program Director Kate Merrigan traveled to Indianapolis for three days to work with IDOH staff and run a GTY train-the-trainer event for IDOH staff and Indiana Youth Advisory Board members. One highlight was that we were able to include training via Zoom at various points, including two youth from VT teams and Liz Brochu, the GTY NH Project Director. All in all, we had a lot of laughs, a wonderful time connecting over the importance of youth voice in public health work, and shared learning experience about differences in Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) implementation in various states. The team left the training feeling motivated to bring GTY to Indiana in some form as well as to reflect on their current YRBS administration and how it can better serve young people. We left the experience feeling grateful for the fun energy, great questions, and commitment to elevating youth voice we found in our IDOH partners! We look forward to continuing to work together!