Together for Fertility: Increasing opportunities for adults through improving health literacy

The Together for Fertility project was conceived to tackle the significant gap in accessible infertility education, particularly for adults with lower literacy and education levels. Infertility is a widespread issue, yet many individuals struggle to find comprehensible, inclusive resources that can help them navigate their options. This project aimed to address this gap by developing educational materials tailored to this demographic, ensuring these resources are more understandable and accessible. Additionally, the project sought to strengthen the capabilities of partner organisations in creating and delivering such resources. By fostering collaboration between organisations across different countries, the project intended to share knowledge and innovative practices, laying the groundwork for better-targeted health communication strategies that can reach and support diverse populations facing infertility. Through the implementation of this project, we aimed to address the need for evidence-based, and attractive information available on the health topic of fertility in four Central-Eastern European languages, as well as the need for that information to be understandable to adults with lower literacy and education levels.

The objectives of this project were: 1) to increase the capacities of all partner organisations for preparing and delivering health information to adults with lower levels of literacy and education, 2) to increase the capacities of all partner organisations for developing high-quality educational curricula and learning materials in health education, 3) to produce an innovative, evidence-based train-the-trainer curriculum for training organisation staff and members to hold peer-to-peer workshops for adults wishing to learn more about (in)fertility, 4) to produce evidence-based information on (in)fertility that can be shared in-person (printed) and online, in four Central-Eastern European languages. Through collaboration, the project sought to share best practices, develop innovative approaches, and establish a foundation for reaching adults facing infertility, particularly those with lower literacy and education levels. The ultimate goal was to enhance the overall quality and accessibility of infertility education, with the potential for long-term impact.

The project involved three Learning Teaching Training activities for staff and senior volunteers of the partner organisations: 1) Training on delivering health education and information to adults with lower levels of literacy and education; 2) Training on how to develop high-quality adult learning curricula for health education; and 3) Piloting a train-the-trainer curriculum for (in)fertility education. The project also included dissemination events in all the partner countries, involving stakeholders in policy, health education, and literacy. *All activities are described in detail in the relevant section.

The project results are four outputs: 1) A handbook on how to communicate health information to people with lower levels of literacy and education; 2) An adult education train-the-trainer curriculum for (in)fertility education workshops; 3) A printed book on (in)fertility for adults, in five languages (EN, HR, HU, PL, BG); and 4) Digital materials on (in)fertility for adults, adapted for people with lower levels of literacy and education, in five languages (EN, HR, HU, PL, BG). *All outputs are described in detail in the relevant section, and presented on a dedicated card at the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform.