In March of 2025, we hosted a launch event for the Central Oklahoma Teen Pregnancy Prevention Collaboration’s 5-year strategic plan: Forward Together. During this launch, we promised to show up, speak truth, and support our partners as they build a future where all young people feel informed, supported, and empowered. We celebrated with community, honoring the value of youth leadership, the power of the collective, and the importance of listening first.
We vowed to maintain the momentum of Collaboration efforts and have since doubled down on the values that brought us here. Specifically, doubling down on our commitment to being a Backbone for the Collaboration. Here are just some of the moves we’ve made since the launch of the Forward Together strategic plan:
- Policy Work – Led the Sex Ed Subgroup of the Metriarch Clearinghouse Call group, monitored legislation and provided timely updates to partners, drafted and submitted Public Comments, launched the Messaging Tool Kit for Reaching and Equipping Parents, and engaged with the Economic Development and Health Coalition
- Grants Research – Developed a grant database with resources to support partner organizations in finding funding aligned with their work
- Communication – Published consistent blog content that elevated the Collaboration’s voice and influenced public knowledge/public perception of our cause/movement, started the Collaboration Dispatch email to elevate opportunities and news across the Collaboration network, maintained public facing newsletter promoting opportunities to get involved
- Partner Convenings & Learning – Hosted quarterly Collaboration convenings, sourced and facilitated trainings, and advanced knowledge in the adolescent health sector through presentations at multiple conferences
- Data & Evaluation Work – Provided data technical assistance to partners, implemented a rapid feedback process for training and meeting hosted by honestly, authored and facilitated adoption of the Data and Strategic Learning Supplementary Guide as a companion to Forward Together, and updated data materials on the website including an updated Oklahoma County Teen Birth Rate One-Pager, Oklahoma County Teen Birth Rate One-Pager and refreshed Oklahoma County Health Care Analysis (OCHCA)
- Staff & Organizational Capacity Growth – Hired a Manager of Communications and Community Outreach, hired a Development Manager, maintained a quality internship program each semester and through the summer, shifted our thinking in how the roles on our team support the work of honestly and the Collaboration
The past year has flown by! Here’s what some of our staff had to say as they reflected on the past year’s progress:
“As a backbone organization, our work is often behind the scenes. We work to align partners, partners, strengthen data, and create shared accountability. During our first year of the five-year strategic plan, Forward Together, we helped lay the infrastructure that allows dozens of organizations to act as one. That coordination is what leads to population-level change, and I am excited to be a part of it.”
“When I think about the last year, it starts with me at the strategic planning process. I learned so much from partners in that process and saw such intentionality in the way we listen, speak, write, define, and respond to the Collaboration. This year, we are seeing the benefit of it. We have had new and old partners reengaging…people are connecting and supporting each other, and we helped make space for it!”
“There are so many mutually reinforcing activities happening right now. Sometimes we’re facilitating, sometimes we’re just in the room, but we’re often helping connect dots and make sure efforts are aligned and not pulling in totally different directions.”
“Forward Together has given us a platform to reinvent ourselves in a way that is truly responsive to our community.”
And our plans for Year 2 are already underway:
- We have built out several months of Project Equip Trainings – built around the needs of our health education and community partners
- We are using the Change Agent Inventory to assess gaps in the Collaboration and see how we can strategically fill those gaps to strengthen the eco-system of the Collaboration
- We are looking for ways to collaborate on funding opportunities and programs to strengthen collaboration among partners and sectors
- Create a data monitoring process and products for Oklahoma County and state STI and other sexual health trends
- We are planning the 4th Annual Sex Ed Kick Off with Amplify (submit a proposal if you have expertise to share!)
- We are coordinating a 10 Year Celebration coming Fall 2026 to celebrate a decade of collective impact (stay tuned!)
- We are continuing to adapt to community needs – fulfilling requests and connecting partners within the network of Collaboration and community organizations
We’ve got 1 year of Forward Together under our belts, but 10 years of Honestly as an organization. We’re so proud of what we’ve accomplished as a collective and can’t wait to see what the future of Oklahoma looks like as we continue to build the movement for a stronger, healthier community for young people.