Abstract
Lessons Learned: Youth Engagement in Innovative Teen Dating Violence Prevention Program
Emily Bell, BA, MPH1, Laureen Masai, MPH2 and Melodie Kruspodin3
(1)University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, (2)UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, Los Angeles, CA, (3)Peace Over Violence, Los Angeles, CA
APHA's 2018 Annual Meeting & Expo (Nov. 10 - Nov. 14)
Background: Meaningful youth engagement is essential for successful public health programs. For potentially sensitive issues such as teen dating violence (TDV), prevention programs have proven to be effective especially when youth are directly involved in program planning and facilitating. Youth engagement improves the quality of programs while creating developmental opportunities for youth to gain skills in leadership, critical thinking, and advocacy.
Description: Peace Over Violence designed a TDV prevention program, Youth Over Violence Summer Youth Institute (The Institute) that is driven by a model of youth engagement, participation, and leadership. The Institute utilizes an internally developed curriculum which seeks to help young people think critically about healthy relationships and dating violence. Participants also have the opportunity to work on creative projects that can subsequently be used as advocacy tools in their schools and communities, empowering them to become part of violence prevention efforts. Much of the program planning and implementation of The Institute is done in partnership with Youth Ambassadors, returning youth who have gone through the program. The Youth Ambassadors have the opportunity to provide input in the planning process and co-lead presentations and activities during the program.
Lessons: Engaging youth in violence prevention efforts encourages youth to become advocates in improving their relationships and health as well as the health of their community. Meaningful youth engagement requires a lot of social and instrumental support and realistic planning. However, the benefits gained for the community, organization, and the youth is palpable and a vital component of a successful program.
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs Program planning Public health or related education
Abstract
Great Starts with Breakfast: Youth Advocacy in School Nutrition
Nicky Besser1 and Danny Saggese2
(1)Rescue | The Behavior Change Agency, Washington, DC, (2)Virginia Foundation for Health Youth, Richmond, VA
APHA's 2018 Annual Meeting & Expo (Nov. 10 - Nov. 14)
Only half of children eligible for free breakfast in Virginia currently participate, but gaining access to the school environment to close this gap can be challenging. Youth engagement can be a powerful strategy for any campaign seeking to overcome this access barrier and positively influence the school environment.
The Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth and its youth engagement program, Y Street, partnered with the First Lady of Virginia to create the Great Starts with Breakfast (GSwB) initiative. GSwB aims to expand school breakfast accessibility and participation.
GSwB’s strategy focuses on 3 objectives:
1) Collect information about breakfast barriers/preferences;
2) Convince principals to adopt alternative breakfast models; and
3) Support school breakfast implementation.
Trained high schoolers (“Y-Sters”) directly implement the tactics for each objective via standardized opportunities for involvement.
At nearby elementary/middle/high schools, Y-Sters collect surveys from students to identify breakfast preferences & barriers. This school-specific data is used in youth-led principal and division nutrition director meetings to help make the case for alternative models and improve school breakfast.
Y-Sters also play a critical role in supporting school breakfast implementation – organizing frequent school events, partnering with school staff to organize taste tests, leading School Breakfast Week events, and running a Breakfast Frequent Diner Contest.
Results (8/2016 – 2/2018):
43 Principal, Nutrition Director, and Cafeteria Manager meetings
43 school events
9,258 surveys collected
Increased breakfast participation at participating schools (*metrics awaiting final analysis)
Using GSwB as an example, this presentation will leave attendees with concrete ideas for successfully engaging youth to reach tangible campaign outcomes.
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs Advocacy for health and health education
Abstract
Engaging Youth to #BeTheFirst Tobacco-Free Generation Through Online Training
Leslie Ferreira, BA, MPA and Gustavo Torrez
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Washington, DC
APHA's 2018 Annual Meeting & Expo (Nov. 10 - Nov. 14)
Through an interactive session, learners will identify how the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids’ award-winning Taking Down Tobacco training program fills a critical gap in youth tobacco prevention and advocacy education and provides FREE streamlined, evidence- and skill-based in-person and online training. Taking Down Tobacco empowers youth to advocate for change in their schools, communities and states and help achieve the first tobacco-free generation. Adult coordinators face challenges providing continual, updated and relevant training to youth while youth advocates are overloaded due to competing priorities. Taking Down Tobacco’s online and mobile training provide efficient ways to track youth activity and reach, evaluate knowledge retention, communicate with users, provide competition-based incentives for participation, offer current information and build an online community of leaders. Based on extensive research, the Wyman Center developed the TOP® “Quad A” instructional methodology which combines the experiential learning cycle, multiple intelligences, service learning and ensures training is adaptable, age-appropriate, affective and active. Utilizing this methodology, Taking Down Tobacco online courses introduce youth to the dangers of tobacco and prevention efforts, prepare youth leaders to deliver the tobacco prevention training, engage youth in advanced advocacy topics that build transferable skills, provide certificates of course completion and offer experiential learning through direct application components that generate activism on tobacco control issues locally, statewide and nationally. Currently, four national youth organizations and 20 state departments of health are utilizing Taking Down Tobacco as a key youth training resource. Taking Down Tobacco also aligns with National Educational Standards for successful classroom use.
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Abstract
Facilitating Environmental Health Science Education across Four Southern States
Enid Sisskin, PhD1, Ishara Ramkissoon, PhD2, Lynette Perrault, MEd Sped., PhD Candidate3, Jennifer Walker, PhD4, Aisha Adkison, NBCT5, Jennifer Langhinrichsen-Rohling, Ph.D.2, Hannah Covert, PhD6, Daudet Ilunga Tshiswaka, Ph.D.1, Jeffrey Wickliffe, PhD6 and Maureen Y. Lichtveld, MD, MPH6
(1)University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL, (2)University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, (3)Tulane University, Department of Global Environmental Health Sciences, New Orleans, LA, (4)University of Southern Mississippi, Long Beach, MS, (5)Escambia County School District, Pensacola, FL, (6)Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA
APHA's 2018 Annual Meeting & Expo (Nov. 10 - Nov. 14)
According to Healthy People 2020, “maintaining a healthy environment is central to increasing quality of life and years of healthy life. Globally, 23% of all deaths and 26% of deaths among children under age 5 are due to preventable environmental factors.” Emerging Scholars (ES) programs were developed to optimize health equity through science education and training for public high school students and teachers in environmental health science (EHS), supplementing existing curricula in four Gulf states. Tulane University and the Universities of South Alabama, Southern Mississippi and West Florida each implemented unique programs from 2013-2017.
The ES Environmental Health Sciences Academy is a supplemental summer program that expands access to EHS education and careers for high school students. Of 105 participating students, 67% were female, 41% were Black or Hispanic (under-represented minorities in STEM fields), and 70% attended under-resourced schools with limited science education opportunities. The academy’s flexible educational model allows students to learn, experience and apply environmental health literacy through creative exercises, field trips and EHS research projects. Most students have enrolled in college in health or STEM fields.
The EHS Teachers’ Programs focused on EHS education for high school teachers. To date, over 240 teachers have participated in EHS and marine science professional development workshops, field trips, and water, soil, and food laboratory testing. Teachers were also given access to online resources, environmental testing materials, and laboratory and classroom equipment to facilitate creation of lesson plans.
ES programs have impacted their respective communities by supporting EHS education for underserved populations.
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs Environmental health sciences Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs Public health or related education
Abstract
When Youth Talk, Adults Listen: Engaging Youth in Public Health Policy
Megan Flynn
Rescue Agency, Washington, DC
APHA's 2018 Annual Meeting & Expo (Nov. 10 - Nov. 14)
Youth engagement can be a powerful component of a public health program. However, because low-risk youth tend to join these programs, they have a limited ability to influence high-risk peers who usually are part of different social circles. Instead, these programs have the opportunity to change state/local public health policies; but programs must be designed with a policy focus to materialize this outcome.
Evolvement is a youth engagement model that empowers teens to be agents of change. The model is built on the CDC’s Best Practices for Youth Engagement, which stipulates that youth engagement programs must tangibly contribute to policy change goals.
Evolvement partners with high school clubs to recruit/train youth to work on policy efforts. This approach simplifies recruitment, an often expensive and time-consuming effort.
Once trained, youth are fully integrated into the critical strategies within a policy campaign. The youth lead efforts that advance the campaign’s objectives - including surveying, community outreach, and decision-maker meetings. At every activity youth collect Measures of Progress - tangible and quantifiable indicators of progress - like public surveys to assess the problem; handwritten messages to demonstrate support; or pledge cards from decision-makers. These efforts contribute to the policy goal while youth gain lifelong skills.
This framework has been successfully applied in Virginia, New Mexico, Nevada, Louisiana, Colorado, and Alberta to campaigns such as tobacco retail licensing, smoke-free workplaces, and school breakfast. This session will review the model, and share lessons learned and critical keys to success that attendees can take home and apply to their local programs.
Advocacy for health and health education
Abstract
Giving Florida Youth Advocates the MAD SKILLS Needed to be Leaders in Tobacco Control
Ian Abrams
Golin, Miami, FL
APHA's 2018 Annual Meeting & Expo (Nov. 10 - Nov. 14)
Background:
Florida has been a nationally-recognized leader in the tobacco control movement during the past 20 years. The backbone of Florida’s nationally-recognized and sustained progress in tobacco control has been its youth advocates. Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT) is Florida’s statewide youth organization working to mobilize, educate, and equip Florida youth to revolt against tobacco.
Methods:
Each of Florida’s 67 county grantees support local SWAT chapters, giving local youth a platform to educate their peers about the dangers of tobacco and advocate for community-level changes in tobacco-related policies. In an effort to help grantees and youth advocates plan and implement the most effective local and state-level public health education programs, Tobacco Free Florida’s media agency partners created a MAD (Message Audience Delivery) SKILLS Training intervention which was first leveraged in a statewide summit format and curriculum and has, been an integral training technique for each SWAT chapter. The 3-prong analytical framework underpins all effective advocacy communication programs and helps SWAT youth to use critical-thinking to build more imaginative, creative and strategic campaigns by encouraging them to define their message, identify their audience(s) and determine the most effective delivery channels to reach their objectives.
Results:
The MAD SKILLS platform has trained and engaged youth across the Florida to not only think strategically about their communications objectives, but to also encourage their peers with less traditional talents (i.e., art, writing, music, gaming) to join their movement and leverage their skills to help advance their personal and organizational goals.
Advocacy for health and health education Communication and informatics Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs Program planning Public health or related public policy
Abstract
Harnessing Youth Power: A community-institution partnership to examine tobacco in the retail environment
Denise Jones, MA1, Megan C. Tulikangas, MPP2, Olivia Messina3, Alexa Furek3, Dennis Jones, PhD4 and Karen Hacker, MD MPH2
(1)Youth Enrichment Services, Pittsburgh, PA, (2)Allegheny County Health Department, Pittsburgh, PA, (3)University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, (4)West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV
APHA's 2018 Annual Meeting & Expo (Nov. 10 - Nov. 14)
Background: In Pittsburgh and surrounding communities, nearly forty percent of 18- and 19-year-olds have tried using tobacco products. Exposure to tobacco advertising and availability of products are contributing factors to experimentation. Youth Enrichment Services (YES) partnered with the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) to engage youth in measuring tobacco exposure in retail environments, spur community outreach, and identify policy interventions to decrease tobacco use.
Methods: In spring 2018, twelve YES youth used an electronic Standardized Tobacco Assessment for Retail Settings (STARS) tool to measure product availability and advertising in 120 stores in their neighborhoods. This data was then mapped with demographic and chronic disease prevalence data in ArcGIS to illustrate youths’ exposure to tobacco products and compared among neighborhoods to illustrate disparities. Youth synthesized findings, reflected on their data collection processes and experiences in small group discussions, and analyzed outcomes alongside ACHD representatives.
Results: Preliminary survey results show that tobacco marketing and availability in Pittsburgh is in keeping with other US cities: lower income communities have higher retailer density, more advertising, and lower prices than more affluent neighborhoods. Nearly all stores visited (92%) sold flavored tobacco products, which are particularly appealing to youth.
Conclusions: Youth-driven, community-based research approaches are effective mechanisms to address community health concerns. We will utilize youth’s findings to engage the local policy community in limiting youth tobacco marketing in disenfranchised communities. This data also supplements ACHD’s Community Health Improvement Plan, which seeks to reduce teen and adult smoking rates by 10% over the next five years.
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education Communication and informatics Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs Program planning Public health or related laws, regulations, standards, or guidelines Public health or related public policy
Abstract
Project OPIATE: Developing a youth-leadership approach to opioid misuse prevention education
Andrew Wapner, DO, MPH1, Lisa Siciliano-Miller, MSSA, LISW-S2 and Theresa Ferrari, PhD3
(1)The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, (2)The Ohio State University, Painesville, OH, (3)Ohio State University Extension, Columbus, OH
APHA's 2018 Annual Meeting & Expo (Nov. 10 - Nov. 14)
To address the opioid epidemic in Ohio, schools are required by law to provide curriculum related to opioid misuse, despite no existing state-approved curriculum and no state health education standards to guide competency attainment. To support schools in meeting this mandate, Project OPIATE (Opiate Prevention Initiative-Action Through Education) was designed to develop a youth-led, peer-delivered education program to prevent opioid misuse in school-aged youth. The program also built on an existing partnership between local public health, the Cooperative Extension System and schools to leverage existing partnerships and community resources.
Eighteen youth aged 15-18 years were recruited from two school districts and the county's 4-H program. Four staff from two large school districts agreed to participate on the leadership team with the youth, and staff from the local public health agency and county Extension also participated on the leadership team. The Leadership Team participated in youth leadership development training focused on planning substance abuse prevention programming and in delivering engaging, evidence-based education to their peers. Youth leaders then delivered both the pHarming Effects presentation and age-appropriate materials from the Generation Rx Toolkit to 8th and 9th grade students in the two participating school districts.
This presentation will present results from pre- and post-testing assessments, lessons learned from using a peer-engagement and leadership method of curriculum delivery and opportunities derived from connecting leadership training with multiple evidence-informed curricula to reach students and impact attitudes related to prescription opioid misuse.
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs Provision of health care to the public Public health or related education
Abstract
"Liaisons to Media Positivity:" Youth-led Research Translation and Action in a CBPR Partnership
Sandra Bogar, PhD1, Running Rebels Youth Advisory Council2, John Rakowski2 and Sheri Johnson, Ph.D.3
(1)Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, (2)Running Rebels Community Organization, Milwaukee, WI, (3)University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
APHA's 2018 Annual Meeting & Expo (Nov. 10 - Nov. 14)
Background: Challenges related to translating research results into action are well documented. A Youth Advisory Council (YAC) made up of 6 members ages 14-17 serve as partners within a CBPR study and are leveraging qualitative research results to advance environmental health policy, systems, and community action in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The media is one of 5 targeted stakeholders challenged with a YAC institutional policy change "action ask" to address focus group data documenting environmental health consequences connected to chronic, negative images of young black men.
Methods: YAC members met weekly for five months to review study data, develop media policy "action asks," and engage local electronic, print, television and radio media stakeholders. Following a presentation to invited media representatives, YAC members tracked media content over a one-month period according to "action ask" criteria regarding positive representation of young black men.
Results: A total of 5 of 13 invited media stakeholders attended the presentation and verbally committed to make some change in media coverage regarding young black men. A total of 53 media hits met YAC members criteria. In addition, 5/5 media stakeholder participants solicited media content from the YAC, resulting in additional media coverage of the YAC work through newspaper articles, public radio, and television news.
Conclusion: Translation of qualitative data for the development of institutional policy change using a youth partnered CBPR approach appears feasible. Questions remain regarding how to sustain youth-led action and achieve large scale impact.
Communication and informatics Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs Public health or related public policy