The Family Planning National Training Center Celebrates Four Years of Successes

For over 40 years, JSI has been funded by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Population Affairs (OPA) to provide training and technical assistance (TTA) to Title X service providers. This work began in 1978, when JSI managed two Title X Regional Training Centers, working with dozens of grantees to develop and fulfill tailored TTA plans. From 2012 to 2016, JSI managed two of the five Title X National Training Centers, one focused on building capacity for evaluation, performance measurement, and quality improvement; the other focused on strengthening management systems, implementing the Affordable Care Act, and fulfilling the Triple Aim goals. 

In 2016, JSI was awarded the sole cooperative agreement from OPA to serve as the Family Planning National Training Center for Service Delivery Improvement (FPNTC) to build Title X grantee capacity to strengthen networks across the full range of topics, with a particular focus on translating research into practice. As JSI approaches four years as the FPNTC, we reflect on some of key successes.

Improved Knowledge Management

JSI as the FPNTC developed a robust website to facilitate knowledge-sharing within the network. Hearing that a top need from grantees was the ability to monitor staff completion of training, JSI built a system that allows users to track individual and network training completion. Each month, the website has more than 5,000 active users who collectively view about 50,000 pages. Website use today is more than three times what it was when JSI took over the cooperative agreement. The website is the primary venue by which JSI helps users identify and connect to relevant TTA.

Continuous Feedback Loop 

JSI has leveraged its longstanding relationships to maximize our reach. Since 2016, FPNTC has engaged with 100% of grantees, and 98% of grantee agencies and networks have participated in TTA activities. Each grantee has a member of the FPNTC TTA team assigned as its primary point of contact. Liaisons contact grantees regularly to discuss ongoing training needs. We also monitor our website analytics, use evaluation data, and record qualitative information and lessons from each TTA engagement. This model has provided an ongoing feedback loop in which grantees inform the training plan and specific products.

Responsiveness to Diverse Learning Needs and Priorities

JSI meets Title X grantee staff needs through multiple TTA modalities. Since 2016, the FPNTC has developed 148 new resources including job aids, archived events, toolkits, training guides, podcasts, videos, and interactive eLearning courses, among others. These resources are focused on OPA priority topics such as adolescent counseling; mandatory reporting; chlamydia screening; substance use disorder services; and cultural competency. JSI hosted 23 live webinars with more than 4,600 attendees and offered 20 eLearning courses to more than 43,000 registrations. JSI understands that meaningful practice change occurs with implementation support. Since 2016, we have facilitated three peer learning groups four learning collaboratives, and provided 62 one-on-one TA engagements to help grantees in contend with complex implementation challenges.

Efficiency and Value

To assess the value of our TTA services, JSI calculates return on investment (ROI) by comparing the benefits of providing TTA with the costs of delivering it. Costs are equal to the funded amount of the TTA center. Benefits are estimated by what training participants would pay for services if they were not available for free from a TTA center. ROI increases over time as use of TTA services increases. The ROI for the FPNTC has increased over time and by the end of the third year had generated benefits more than 2 times greater than its costs. This is likely an underestimate because it does not include intangible benefits or hard-to-measure benefits such as increased clients seen or improved quality of services experienced by TTA recipients. These trends are similar to those that JSI has observed in other national TTA center projects.

Conclusion

JSI is proud to have supported the Title X network for 40 years. We are grateful for the ongoing opportunity to contribute to such an important public health program and support its commitment to increased access to and quality of services. 

Written by: Katie Quimby, Katie Saul, Jennifer Kawatu