Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Sonia Jain, MPH¹, Sandra Witt, DrPH², Celana Ahyte³, Mona Mena, MPH⁴, and Joan Kiley³. (1) Dept of Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard University School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Ave, 6th floor, Boston, MA 02115, (610) 852-5234, sojain@hsph.harvard.edu, (2) Community Assessment, Planning and Education Unit, Alameda County Public Health Department, 1000 Broadway Suite 500, Oakland, CA 94607, (3) Environmental Prevention in Communities, 3101 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705, (4) Emergency Medical Services, Alameda County Public Health Department, 1000 San Leandro Blvd., San Leandro, CA 94577

Within the borders of Oakland CA, youth are paving the way for change. At EPIC, Environmental Prevention in Communities, 30 youth gathered with the goal to make change in their community around alcohol problems. Funded by the State Office of Traffic Safety and together with Alameda County Public Health Department, a diverse group of young people developed a survey called “STAANO – Surveying Teens about Alcohol ‘n Oakland'. The purpose of the survey was to 1. understand the current status of underage drinking, 2. to identify associated risk and protective factors, at the environmental level including community, the media, and family, 3. to inform prevention efforts, 4.to increase community awareness and mobilization around underage drinking, 5. to empower youth and build healthier communities. The participatory action research process fully involved the youth from survey design, pilot testing, administration of over 350 surveys, data entry, analysis and the interpretation of results, to report preparation and presentation. The youth guided the development of the report in terms of content, the color choices, photographs of the community and surrounding liquor stores, as well as quotes and cartoon scripts highlighting the major findings. The report targets both policy makers and youth groups. We will discuss the lessons learned from the participatory action research process and the outcomes achieved. We will describe how the capacity of youth and public health was enhanced as a result of youth-adult partnership, and the challenges of translating principles of community capacity-building into public health practice.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify ways community partnerships can contribute to the development of engaged youth and public health.
• Articulate the benefits of conducting youth-led participatory action research for addressing major public health issues.
• Identify 3 creative ways youth can participate in public health program and policy development.

Keywords: Youth, Participatory Action Research

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation