Youth Health Action Board: A Model for Engaging High School Youth in Promoting Healthy Environment Change

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.