Health Equality Peer Education Training (HEPE): Strengthening Youth Philanthropy With Ideals of Health Equity

Many youth leaders are compelled to do work with community based non-profit and local public health agencies as both a service learning and philanthropic component in their development as young professionals. However, despite invaluable experiential learning, students often don't comprehend key overarching issues such as health disparities, social determinants of health, health policy and community organizing. To address this gap and optimize their community based work, the Health Disparities Student Collaborative (HDSC), a Boston-based student group under Critical MASS for eliminating health disparities and the Center for Community Health Education Research and Service Inc. (CCHERS), developed a curriculum for students designed to broaden their perspectives while working with local public health, non-profit/community organizations and to develop their interest and ability to visualize the power of their collective voice as students and contributors to social justice work. The curriculum utilizes peer education and webinar software and covers three main topics: Current State of Health Disparities, Social Determinants of Health, and Youth Activism on Health Disparities/Social Determinants of Health. HDSC has collaborated with local partners CCHERS/Critical MASS and the Community Based Public Health Caucus (CBPHC) Youth Council to develop this comprehensive “Health Equality Peer Education” training. The curriculum and training were piloted via online webinars to youth leaders identified in the youth council of the CBPHC. The results of a utilization focused evaluation including a pre/post testing process and poll participation will be presented. The preliminary findings suggest that the training enhances the knowledge and potential for social justice work of youth.