Empowering High School Students: Health Sciences Librarians Partners in a Health Advocacy Education Project

Background: This presentation provides an overview of roles played by librarians in advancing public health education and focuses on a three-year, $205,000 project funded by a National Library of Medicine Information Resource Grant to Reduce Health Disparities. Through this project, library faculty at the University of Maryland's Health Sciences and Human Services Library partnered with Vivien T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy (VTTMAA), a Baltimore high school, to develop students' skills to advocate for better health at the personal, family and community level.

Purpose: The aims of Project SHARE (Student Health Advocates Redefining Empowerment) are to empower high school students as community health advocates, promote improved health, reduce health disparities in Baltimore neighborhoods and develop a replicable student health advocacy program to be used by community-academic partnerships nationwide.

Methods: This presentation reports on developing successful partnerships; student recruitment; program staffing and evaluation; and the creation of a curriculum aligned with national standards such as Healthy People 2020, National Health Education Standards, and National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities.

Results: In August 2012, the first cohort will have completed the 154 hour program. The efficacy of the curriculum, based on the results of a web-based pre- and post-test will be analyzed and reported.

Effective communication between stakeholders has played a key role in this project.

A flexible, interactive, student driven curriculum engages students in the program. All students accepted into the program remain committed and enthusiastic.