91. Y2CONNECT – A Digital Solution to Connect Youth to Local Resources Across Sectors

Youth (aged 10-24) require support for their health, education, employment, and social and civic engagement/community service. Yet, youth-focused resource availability across sectors is not always readily apparent for youth, parents/guardians, and youth-serving professionals (YSPs) (e.g., teachers, community-based staff, clinicians) in cities across the U.S. To address this gap in Baltimore, we created Y2CONNECT, a digital cross-sector youth-focused resource guide. Our study examined Y2CONNECT’s users, viewed content, and usage patterns from launch on 11/1/2016 through 6/30/2022. Adapting a youth-focused clinic guide from a prior project linking male youth to family planning/sexual and reproductive health (FP/SRH), we developed Y2CONNECT using youth input, pre-existing topic-specific guides, Google searches, and public health surveillance data. Y2CONNECT consists of a home page, resource guide, and article pages. Each guide listing, tagged as a community, website, hotline, and/or clinic resource and by its offered service(s)/topic(s), is found by using 50 pre-populated topic pages or typing keywords/zipcodes. For content analyses, we categorized topics into 5 sector domains and 21 subdomains: 1) Social Service/Recreation (i.e., arts/rec, volunteer opportunities, youth development programs, advocacy), 2) School/STEM/Job Readiness Programs, 3) Immediate Needs (i.e., clothing/laundry/food/income/legal assistance, shelter/housing, life skills), 4) Health (insurance, relationships/parenting, general/oral/mental health, substance use, FP/SRH, HIV treatment, youth-focused clinics), and 5) Specific Populations (i.e., LGBTQ+, Latinx, special healthcare needs, immigrants/refugees/foster care). We used Google Analytic (GA) data to generate frequencies about users, viewed content, and highlight top 3 viewed topics and resources; GA sex/age data is made available for only 18+ who permit information sharing. For content viewed, we coded each listing by its main provided service/topic, with 97% agreement between two coders. Separate linear regressions examined average yearly change in number of monthly new users, sessions, pageviews, sex, and age. This study was IRB exempt. 65,046 unique users made 73,774 sessions and 114,732 pageviews. 58% used desktop, 64% were female, with 23% users aged 18-24. Most common pageviews included 24% community programs, 24% articles, 17% pre-populated topic pages, 12% home page, and 9% clinics. Overall domain content viewed included: 13% Social Service/Recreation, 16% School/STEM/Job Readiness Programs, 11% Immediate Needs, 47% Health, and 13% Specific Populations. Top 3 viewed Pre-Populated Topic Pages included: 15%FP/SRH, 11% youth-focused clinics and 10% school readiness/STEM. Top Community Listings included: 19% Immediate Needs, 17% job readiness, 13%immigrants/refugees/foster care. Top Websites included: 62% FP/SRH, 9% school readiness/STEM, 6% crisis. Top Hotlines included: 52% mental health, 32% FP/SRH, 10% LGBTQ+; and Clinic Listings included: 34% youth-focused clinics, 26% FP/SRH, 11% mental health. Majority article viewed: “Steps to make a doctor’s appointment” (74%). Linear regression demonstrated significant average yearly increases in monthly new users (both male and female), sessions, pageviews, and users aged 18-24 compared to other ages (all p<0.001). Findings highlight Y2CONNECT Baltimore as an important strategy to connect users to local resources across sectors and user growth over time. Digital strategies, such as Y2CONNECT, can help youth get connected. Future research should examine Y2CONNECT’s use in relation to population health.