Engaging urban youth in public health and health careers as a cause for social justice: A youth perspective on best practices

In the field of public health, there are many disparities (injustices) that must be addressed to eliminate ethnic and racial health disparities. Many of these disparities are fueled from the many inequities caused by social determinants of health. One of the disparities in public health is the underrepresentation of minorities in public health and health professionals. In the summer of 2009, a group of community-based organizations in Flint Michigan called the Community Based Organization Partners (CBOP) along with the Prevention Research Center of Michigan, recruited five (5) college interns (residents of the community) to engage high school and college peers in dialogue concerning public health and health careers. The goal of this project was to produce best practice approaches/recommendations as suggested by youth participants. The interns conducted two face-to-face youth dialogue sessions with local youth and conference call dialogues with youth from the Detroit Junior Village Health Workers and the Community Based Public Health Caucus. Interns also engaged youth via questionnaire at local cultural celebrations associated with the African American Independence Week Festivities in Flint, MI. All information collected during the youth dialogues and the questionnaires was then analyzed by the interns. This presentation by the youth will present conclusions including strategies for effective use of technology, action to solve local problems, and community-based participatory research to attract urban youth into public health and health careers. Recommendations emerging from this project will be used to secure funding to research and test the approaches identified by the interns.