How We Work
At Ci3, we take a multi-pronged approach to adolescent sexual health and wellbeing. Our methods engage young people, study social and systemic barriers, and seek opportunities for policy and systems change. We aim to empower young people and ensure they have access to the information, resources, and institutions they need.
Research
We conduct research to learn how to meet the needs of young people, test our approaches, and evaluate our interventions. Traditional research methods may miss the nuances of what it means to be a young person. Ci3’s approach to research crosses boundaries posed by differences in academic disciplines, identities, age, training, and backgrounds. Our research results elevate the voices of young people, inform clinical practice, and advance educational outcomes. For more information on our research publications, click here.
Some of our research projects include:
IL Needs Assessment
Researchers conducted an Illinois statewide needs assessment of family planning providers. In partnership with the Illinois Contraceptive Justice Coalition, a Ci3 report was published to support efforts in increasing providers’ capacity to provide comprehensive, compassionate contraceptive care and counseling. Read the full report here.
Adolescent x
Adolescent X is a study exploring the messages and interactions that shape adolescent perspectives on body image, identity, and sexuality. We’re currently partnering with adolescents on a podcast to expand the conversation around these issues.
Illinois Abortion Research
Researchers at Ci3 and the University of Chicago have conducted research and policy analysis to support abortion access in Illinois for many years. Our findings provide insight on the implementation and efficacy of current Illinois abortion policies, interventions to support high-quality abortion care, and efforts to reduce health disparities and inequity. Up to date reports and in depth research are available here.
Kissa Kahani
Kissa Kahani is a multi-year research project that aims to better understand the role of gender in adolescent reproductive health through the use multimedia, storytelling, and data collection in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Learn more.
rplan
The rPlan app walks patients through contraceptive options and gives advice on how to talk with their sexual partners about contraception. Learn more about rPlan and how Ci3 researchers used human-centered design to develop this intervention.
THE PATIENT-CENTERED POSTPARTUM CONTRACEPTIVE TOOLKIT
The Patient-Centered Postpartum Contraceptive Toolkit is a theory-based waiting room application developed in partnership with providers and patients. The goal of the toolkit is to encourage pregnant adolescent patients to ask questions about interpregnancy intervals and postpartum contraception. Learn more about it here.
miPlan
The miPlan app is a waiting-room contraceptive counseling mobile application that focuses on interest in discussing long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) during clinical encounters and LARC uptake. Learn more about miPlan.
miPrep
MiPrEP is a waiting room mobile application designed to educate, engage, and determine eligibility of PrEP HIV prevention for young Black men who have sex with men. To evaluate its efficacy, miPrEP was piloted and researched in local STI and HIV clinics. Learn more about miPrEP.
WORK2PREVENT
Work2Prevent is a research study aimed at reducing HIV infection among young men who have sex with men and young transgender women. The study explores how employment and job readiness skills can prevent adolescent homelessness, drug use, and migration to other “street economies” associated with increased risk for HIV infection.
For More Information
To learn about our research, contact Lee Hasselbacher at lhasselbacher@bsd.uchicago.edu.
Communications
The Ci3 Communications team translates and disseminates Ci3 research, methods, and approaches to a variety of audiences and stakeholders.
Examples of our communications include:
Raising awareness of approaches and findings
We raise awareness of our programs and interventions through channels such as our website and newsletter; local and national news outlets, including TV/radio; and social media.
Translating Research to Inform Stakeholders
We are committed to ensuring that our research is accessible to those who positively impact the health and wellbeing of young people. We work closely with researchers to translate science and policy into research briefs and reports that better inform key stakeholders.
Fostering Community Engagement and Dialogue
We work across the organization to ensure that key community and University partners are engaged
with our research initiatives. We also
collaborate with young people
to create educational resources
and digital content
around their health and wellbeing.
For More Information
To learn more about our communications, contact Erin Garcia at egarcia1@bsd.uchicago.edu.
Policy
At Ci3, we believe that the broader systems and structures of society must change in order to improve population health and reduce disparities. Using evidence-based research, we influence systems, policy, and practice to improve sexual and reproductive healthcare. Our policy experts collaborate with patients and providers to identify opportunities to improve Illinois state policies. We also partner with government officials, policymakers, and public health figures to improve the reproductive healthcare experience for patients.
Ci3 is involved in a number of local and national coalitions, work groups, and learning communities around issues such as public funding for abortion, contraceptive access for low-income women, postpartum contraception, parental involvement in abortion, religious healthcare, and healthcare reform.
Examples of our policy work include:
ADOLESCENT access to reproductive healthcare
We analyze issues of consent, confidentiality, and insurance coverage to support adolescent access to reproductive health care, including research on the impacts of parental involvement in abortion and judicial bypass.
Reproductive care & religious health systems
We conduct research on restrictions to reproductive health care within religious health systems, exploring effects on contraception, abortion, treatment for pregnancy complications, and the role of insurance.
Politics of reproductive health care
We research the impact of policy on access to reproductive care, improving current policies and building evidence for new policies that reduce disparities. We participate in statewide coalitions and develop briefs, reports, and testimony to share with community partners.
For More Information
To learn more about our policy initiatives, contact Lee Hasselbacher at lhasselbacher@bsd.uchicago.edu.
Games
Our Game Changer Chicago Design Lab uses games as a vehicle to improve young people’s health and wellbeing. We also use games to enable young people to enter STEM and health careers, and to educate adolescents about critical social issues. Each game-based intervention is created using the principles of human-centered design through collaboration with adolescents in the design process. Our interventions include a variety of games and interactive media that address topics such as teen pregnancy, STI prevention, public health, epidemiology, smoking prevention, and more. Our interventions are delivered in a number of formats, including board games, card games, computer games, alternate reality games, and interactive apps.
Some of our games and apps include:
caduceus quest
This theory-based digital role-playing game provides health education and encourages health and biomedical science career interest in Black and Latinx young people. Learn more about Caduceus Quest.
sTEP UP
Step Up is a digital game-based bystander intervention for high school students to understand the importance of diversity in STEM, and to acquire the skills, attitudes, and awareness to attain positive STEM identities and mitigate bias and harassment in STEM and health learning environments.
Lineage
Lineage is a blended digital-analog game in which players explore the breadth and history of reproductive justice movements in the United States through the Story Web, which features activists whose voices and stories are part of those movements.
clinic quest
In this trivia game, players take on the role of a health researcher who collects data about six common sexually transmitted infections. Learn more about Clinic Quest.
babytown
In Babytown, players have a possibility of becoming high-school parents and must try to balance their GPA, finances, and social life with their baby’s health and happiness. Learn more about Babytown.
smokestacks
In this game, players assume the role of a tobacco executive whose goal is to make money despite customers’ deaths from tobacco-related diseases.
Learn more about Smokestacks.
Bystander
This digital sexual violence prevention game and curriculum is designed for high school students. It promotes the skills, attitudes, and awareness that empower adolescents to help end sexual violence. Read more about Bystander.
infection city
This board game allows players to collaborate as a team of epidemiologists who try to contain a meningitis outbreak. Players build clinics and vaccinate populations while meningitis spreads. Learn more about Infection City.
The test
This mobile game is about being a young, queer person of color confronting the need to get tested for HIV. Read more about The Test and how it’s designed to improve rates of HIV testing among young men who have sex with men.
Playing & Making Training
Our team leads a game design training workshop to share how we design games that incorporate narrative-based research approaches. The workshop includes information about how we collaborate with young people and community stakeholders throughout the game design, prototype, implementation, and research evaluation phases.
prognosis
This digital simulation game promotes public health career interest and skills among teenagers from populations currently underrepresented in STEM. It places young people as problem solvers in public health dilemmas.
hearsay
This storytelling card game educates players about various forms of contraception and PrEP while also de-stigmatizing and normalizing their use among young people. Learn more about Hearsay.
For More Information
To learn more about our games, contact Mason Arrington at marrington@bsd.uchicago.edu.
Storytelling
The Ci3 Transmedia Story Lab creates multimedia stories with and for young people. Participants gain skills in self-expression, technology, critical thinking, and narration using a variety of media. Through the use of storytelling, our interdisciplinary team portrays the lived experiences of urban adolescents who are often underrepresented and misrepresented in mainstream media. We focus on adolescents’ experiences, foster media making, promote well-rounded narratives about the lives of young people, and bridge stories and scholarship.
Recent storytelling projects include:
FranKly. pODCAST
To expand on the issues presented in the Adolescent X study, we are partnering with young people in Chicago to launch the Frankly. podcast. Young people share their experiences of the structural and systemic barriers that impact their health and wellbeing while living on the South and West Sides.
Adolescent x
Adolescent X is a study exploring the messages and interactions that shape adolescent perspectives on body image, identity, and sexuality. The study focused on body mapping, a visual arts-based research tool that focuses on embodied experience and affords an exploration of the body and related feelings.
ONE DAY AT A TIME
Ci3 developed an educational animation awareness initiative titled “One Day at a Time” to inform young people about the essential role they play in preventing the spread of COVID-19. Share this animation by downloading the social media kit.
Storytelling Training
As part of our partner training series, our storytelling and research experts led a storytelling workshop to discuss how we use narrative methods to instill both systemic perspectives and increased agency in young people. We also led an interactive discussion on practical tips to implement principles of adolescent engagement.
transmedia Collage
Transmedia Collage illustrated the impact of structural violence on Chicago’s South Side. Young people engaged with community elders, activists, scholars, artists, and storytellers and created multimedia projects reflecting what they learned. Read about their final projects on display at South Side Speculations.
South Side Stories
South Side Stories is a storytelling project that harnesses the power of narrative to raise the voices of young African Americans—male, female, and sexual minority—living on Chicago’s South Side. Watch their stories to learn about their personal experiences.
For More Information
To learn more about our storytelling projects, contact Madeline Quasebarth at mquasebarth@bsd.uchicago.edu.
Design
Our Design Thinking Lab uses human-centered design approaches with adolescents, health care providers, schools, and other organizations to create innovative solutions that improve sexual and reproductive healthcare. By engaging directly with young people, we gain a better understanding of the ways that sexual healthcare affects their lives, helping us identify opportunities for improvement. The result is the development of new tools, resources, and delivery of care models designed with and for young people.
Examples of our design projects include:
Hello Greenlight
Hello Greenlight is a sexual and reproductive health service platform that connects providers and young people in Illinois to sexual health care centered around adolescents. Visit Hello Greenlight to learn more.
Hello Options!
Hello Options! is an all-in-one tool featuring physical replicas of multiple contraceptives: the Pill, patch, ring, shot, IUD (copper and hormonal), implant, female condom, and male condom. Healthcare providers use this tool to give patients a better understanding of how all options look and function, and use it to spark conversation. Read more about Hello Options!
Let’s chat
Let’s Chat is a tool that facilitates open, non-judgmental conversations between young people and their healthcare providers. Formatted as a deck of cards, the tool includes a range of sexual health questions that young people can read through while they wait in the exam room for their provider. Find out more about Let’s Chat.
For More Information
To learn more about our design projects, contact Amanda Geppert at ageppert@bsd.uchicago.edu.