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Abstract #172191

Matthew B. Moyer, MPH¹, Katherine L. Atkiss, MPH¹, Noha Z. Gracia¹, Jeniy Aroche¹, and Eduardo Aguilar, BA². (1) Division of Adolescent Medicine - School Health Center, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, 4131 S. Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90037, 323-846-7316, mmoyer@chla.usc.edu, (2) Policy Programs, California Center for Civic Participation, 1220 H Street, Suite 102, Sacramento, CA 95814

Rates of health concerns such as teenage obesity, diabetes, asthma, unplanned pregnancy and STD's continue to rise among adolescents, especially in urban, low-income areas. A growing response in adolescent healthcare is providers directly involving youth in determining and implementing ways to address these concerns through education, advocacy and advisory roles. The Youth Health Action Board (YHAB) is a model that builds knowledge and skills, and promotes an environment that supports healthy behaviors on a high school campus in south Los Angeles. The decision to create YHAB emerged from the positive energy of students demonstrating a need to address environmental changes to their campus and community. YHAB is peer-led, school-based, where health promotion and education activities provide a means for students to discuss these health concerns on campus. In the past year, youth involved in YHAB began advocating for environmental change such as reducing teen pregnancy rates, changing the food in the school cafeteria, offering lunchtime and after-school exercise activities, and participating in public policy trainings facilitated by an outside civic agency in Sacramento, CA. These youth are trained and empowered to respond to health issues identified through campus needs assessments and supported by partnerships with the school health center, teachers, administration, and local agencies. A recent case study conducted with YHAB members showed to demonstrate YHAB's effect on their environment through a Socio-Ecological perspective and explores common themes among youth participants from the Developmental Assets perspective, identifying ways which they have grown individually and more resilient to health risks.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe an overview of a Youth Health Action Board, an integrated prevention model grounded in youth development theory, wherein youth advocate for comprehensive change to their school environment.
• Discuss ways in which to engage high school youth to combat health outcomes such as unplanned teen pregnancy, while promoting early detection of HIV and STDs among sexually active teens; and teenage obesity, through nutrition education and physical fitness activities.
• Construct ideas for program planning, where youth and adults collaborate in an environment with diverse community stakeholders, leaders, policy-makers, healthcare professionals in dialogues about school health and environmental issues.

Keywords: Adolescent Health, School-Based Programs

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the lead author on this study and project coordinator of this program. I have presented several times in the past years regarding my research at the University of Pittsburgh and have published some articles, including one in the June issue of AJPH.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.