Adolescents as health advocates and researchers: A CBPR model for underserved populations in rural Appalachia

Six years ago WV Health Sciences and Technology Academy recognized the lack of public health knowledge in the rural communities of the state. HSTA is a pipeline program that encourages African American and underrepresented students to pursue degrees in Health Sciences and STEM majors, to increase the number of health practitioners and advocates in the medically underserved communities of WV. HSTA students along with their community boards wanted to tackle health issues and disparities within the state and needed a strategy through which this could be accomplished. The HSTA community infrastructure which includes after school clubs in 26 counties in the state, 14 regional coordinators, 70 community governing board members and close to 800 underrepresented 9th – 12th grade students, provided the access to rural communities to begin to translate health research to these communities. Through HSTA, students that would typically not be engaged in scientific research get the opportunity to partner with biomedical scientists and work on issues that directly affect their communities. With HSTA students as the researchers and a partnership with Clinical Translational Scientists from UPITT, the Community Appalachian Investigation Research Network was born. Results of this partnership will be presented with the primary focus being on adolescents as health advocates, and agents of health behavior change in their communities. Data suggests that this partnership and resulting projects has provided HSTA students 'with a platform for translating health issues to their communities.