Session
Youth Roundtable: Youth Leading the Way to Healthier Communities
APHA 2022 Annual Meeting and Expo
Abstract
Changemakers: Developing Youth as Leaders for Justice, Health, and Well-being
APHA 2022 Annual Meeting and Expo
Issues: Engaging youth as leaders in public health research and practice is imperative in efforts to address the health and well-being of current and future generations.
Description: Changemakers is a structured internship program that exists to support Black and Brown youth in the Southeast Raleigh (SER) community. The program relies on four values to foster youth engagement and leadership development: 1) Ubuntu, 2) presence/active engagement, 3) honesty, authenticity, & communication, and 4) commitment to growth & development. Changemakers interns are compensated for leading service projects and conducting trainings on racial equity and resiliency.
Building on prior photovoice research conducted by SER youth that identified mental health as a priority, Changemakers developed HOPE Seekers, a peer-led mental health curriculum, in collaboration with researchers from the University of North Carolina (UNC). Currently piloting and refining the curriculum, Changemakers also worked in partnership with UNC researchers using Photovoice to explore resilience during pandemic times. The photovoice project findings revealed the importance of creating safe spaces centered around shared values that facilitate productive conversations for change and create a sense of belonging for youth of color.
Lessons Learned: Programs that facilitate trusting relationships, shared purpose, and opportunities to learn and engage can strengthen youth as leaders for justice, health, and well-being. Changemakers demonstrate that youth are powerful advocates and have capacity to create change in their communities.
Recommendations:
Changemakers has built a youth-responsive and generative space that leads to learning, growth, and action that can be a model for other programs.
Abstract
Voices Not Violence: Photovoice as a Means to Understand Youth Violence, Mental Health, and Climate Change
APHA 2022 Annual Meeting and Expo
The mission of the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council (MYAC) is to advise and propose action items to the Mayor of New Orleans on matters relating to the youth of New Orleans. Each year, the MYAC learns about initiatives and problems facing the city and develop an impact project to address the concerns of youth. This year, the youth decided to develop a photovoice project to understand how youth violence, mental health, and climate change are impacting our peers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many youth felt alone and isolated and violence rates continue to rise in our beloved city of New Orleans. “Photovoice is a process by which people can identify, represent, and enhance their community through a specific photographic technique (Wang and Burris, 1997). We know that our peers utilize technology daily and thought that photos and narratives were a great way to capture how we feel. During April and May 2022, we recruited youth through social media and our networks to submit photos answering questions around our topics. Photos and narrative were analyzed into themes and presented at an exhibition during Summer 2022. The photos provide us with a time capsule to mark our current reality with a sense of accountability for local decision makers to include our voice in policy and practice changes. The project was presented to the Mayor at our yearly graduation with the intention to include youth beyond the MYAC to represent the diverse voices and experiences of New Orleans youth.
Abstract
Youth Empowered to Address Racism as a Public Health Crisis: Operationalizing the Resolution!
APHA 2022 Annual Meeting and Expo
Issue: City, County and State level municipalities all over the country have declared Racism as a Public Health Crisis. Racial disparities coupled with the ongoing violence, murders, and discriminatory treatment of people of color when engaging with law enforcement, are constant examples of the role racism plays in public health. Strategies for operationalizing the resolution for action are needed.
Description: The Flint Public Health Youth Academy (FPHYA) has partnered with the Greater Flint Taskforce on COVID-19 and Racial Inequities to operationalize the resolution from a public health lens. FPHYA has engaged youth to identify, youth-centered solutions and recommendations to address racism through a series of youth dialogues. To date, FPHYA has conducted 7 youth dialogues with 81 participants across Genesee County.
Lessons Learned: Providing youth forums to discuss racism empowers youth to identify tangible solutions for action. Results yielded: 1) the development of a Youth Action Council, 2) the development of a draft county wide strategic plan, and 3) engaging youth in systems modeling. Findings from the Youth Dialogues were organized into themes with goals and objectives, serving as the first draft of a strategic plan to address racism as a public health crisis in Flint, Genesee County Michigan.
Recommendation: Utilize participatory approaches for youth to create a process for developing a strategic plan to operationalize racism as a public health crisis resolution. Contextually frame youth dialogues using Community Based Participatory Research and Community Engaged Research principles to evaluate youth perspectives of racism.
Abstract
Lessons learned from collaborating with children through photovoice
APHA 2022 Annual Meeting and Expo
Issue: Most studies of children and climate change focus on instilling literacy (a ‘top-down’ process). For younger children, there is a need for alternative pedagogies that move from ‘transmissive’ to ‘transformative’ – “allowing them to become innovators that change existing structures and systems (Papenfuss et al., 2019, p. 1). Photovoice, a form of participatory action research, can help explore how children make sense of climate change, while inviting their critical reflection, arts-based expression, and action (a ‘bottom-up’ process).
Description: Science, Camera, Action! (SCA), was a photovoice after-school program consisting of hands-on educational activities and youth-led action across three neighboring cities at three Boys and Girls Clubs (BGC) in the Western United States. Fifty-five children (ages 10 to 12) participated in SCA. Using thematic analysis (Bruan & Clarke, 2006), of children’s photovoice discussions, the present study explores how children made connections between their own lives and climate change through photovoice.
Lessons Learned: Findings suggest that photovoice helped children to learn about, care about, and take action on climate change. Moreover, these processes were interdependent and fueled by children’s enjoyment of the program and children’s engagement in collective meaning-making during group-based photovoice discussions. This study sheds light on how the participatory nature of photovoice can reduce hierarchies -- between adults and children, educators and learners, researchers and participants – and position children as agents of change toward a more equitable and sustainable future.
Recommendations: We recommend using photovoice and various participatory action approaches to ensure equity for any social issue.
Abstract
Youth Voice As a Catalyst for Community Change: Removing Barriers to Prosocial Opportunities Through Photovoice
APHA 2022 Annual Meeting and Expo
Broomfield Public Health and Environment supports a Communities that Care (CTC) coalition to address the root causes of youth substance use and to identify the risk and protective factors that contribute to or buffer against substance use among youth. One protective strategy identified by the coalition is opportunities and rewards for prosocial involvement, focusing on efforts to break
down barriers to youth opportunities and spaces in the community. Evidence shows that when youth participate in positive activities and interactions with prosocial adults and opportunities in their neighborhood, they are less likely to engage in problem behaviors, such as substance use. Engaging and leveraging the youth perspective to increase opportunities for prosocial involvement has been a core strategy for Broomfield Communities That Care for the last 6 years.
In Summer 2021, Broomfield Youth For Youth, the youth advisory group for Broomfield Communities That Care, completed an intensive Photovoice project, asking 15 advisers to provide their perspective on what things help or prevent them from being connected in their community. Project design and support was also provided by Dr. Erin Seedorf, a public health faculty at Metropolitan State University (MSU) of Denver. The youth coalition work manifested in four main themes: community bonds, community spaces, suburban safety and walkability, and creativity and promotion of progress. Youth advisers then brought together over 40 community members, key leaders and partners to explore connectedness within the Broomfield community, sharing the stories of the work they accomplished, as well as solutions to inequities and barriers that impact the ability of young people to authentically engage with their community.
This presentation will summarize the process and themes of the internship itself, to provide guidance to other groups who are considering Photovoice as a tool for engaging the youth perspective to affect community change. We will also share examples of how the project inspired community leaders to engage in their commitment to including youth voice in the equity work of their respective organizations.
Abstract
Partnership HEALTH: A Framework for Community Collaborations Targeting Rural Youth Mental Health
APHA 2022 Annual Meeting and Expo
Issues: Montgomery County is a rural community in central Illinois that is rated as one of the least healthiest counties in the state. Out of 102 counties, it is placed at 86 which lower than how it ranked in 2020 which was 77. When the issue of teen suicide was brought to the forefront, a partnership was formed to identify and implement target solutions to improve youth mental health.
Description: A hospital, university, and school district collaborated on an initiative to transform the community and create a positive culture around mental health in an underresourced community. A 7-step framework was followed to address rural youth mental health: (a) Partner, (b) Conduct, (c) Examine Data (d) Program Selection, (e) Build Capacity, (f) Implement a Program, and (g) Evaluate Fidelity and Outcomes. A community-wide survey was distributed to all youth (n = 964) in 6th-12th grade in public schools. A community coalition was concurrently created including key stakeholders from the hospital, school, local ministry, as well as parents, and students. This coalition met monthly to review the data, interpret the data, review evidence-based programs that mapped onto the risk and protective factors associated with poor mental health outcomes (e.g., depression, anxiety), voted on programs, assisted in the implementation of programs, and worked together to create the evaluation for the reception and impact of these programs. Despite all of the challenges with Covid-19 two school-based programs and one community-based program has been implemented. These programs targeted both prevention as well as intervention. The community-based program provided meals and childcare to reduce barriers to getting treatment.
Lessons Learned:
Lesson 1 - When identifying programs to implement, consider programs that offer remote training and hybrid implementation components to (a) make it more accessible to families who might struggle to travel and (b) allow for consistency in program delivery despite challenges brought about by pandemics, weather, and other unforeseeable disruptions.
Lesson 2 – Hospital’s community benefit dollars could provide a sustainable mechanism for implementing and maintaining behavioral and mental health programs in under resourced rural communities.
Brief Recommendations: Hospitals in rural communities are social anchors which can create an unequal power dynamic in coalitions. By recusing hospital leadership from voting, community members can build trust that they can transform the community with the support, rather than direction, of powerful partners.
Abstract
A Youth Participatory Action Research Study Examining Youth COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance in a Philadelphia Public School
APHA 2022 Annual Meeting and Expo
Background: Black youth have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and are less likely to be vaccinated than white youth. The current youth participatory action research (YPAR) survey study examined COVID-19 vaccination perceptions in a Title 1 Philadelphia public high school with a predominantly Black student population. Findings will inform a youth-driven campaign encouraging vaccination at school-held clinics.
Methods: A diverse study team included 10 high school students, 3 undergraduate students, and 2 graduate students. High school students identified potential trusted sources and beliefs related to vaccination among peers and participated in survey development, distribution, and data analysis. The survey was distributed through school homerooms in September/October 2021. Promising campaign themes were identified using the Hornik and Woolf method.
Results: The youth sample (n=126) was 81% Black (95% Persons of Color), and 47% of respondents were unvaccinated. Parents and doctors were most trusted sources of vaccine information, while friends and religious leaders were least trusted. Eleven of twelve beliefs measured were associated with vaccination. Most promising (defined as those with highest percentages to gain) were: getting the vaccine is safe, protects elderly loved ones, and is common among peers and in the community; least promising was peer approval.
Conclusions: High school student co-investigators demonstrated high awareness of the barriers/facilitators to vaccination among peers; nearly all beliefs they proposed were significantly associated with vaccination. Recommendations from physician sources focusing on vaccine safety, efficacy for others, and descriptive norms, may be particularly effective for increasing vaccine acceptance among Black youth.
Abstract
Partnering with Communities and College Campuses to Address COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Uptake among Young Adults, 18 – 24.
APHA 2022 Annual Meeting and Expo
Issue: The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed striking morbidity and mortality disparities among youth and racial/ethnic minority communities. Vaccine hesitancy has been fueled by mistrust of the medical community, misinformation, and inconsistent policies on mitigation behaviors and vaccinations access.
Description: Georgia Peers for Equity Against COVID-19 and for Health (GA PEACH) focuses on vaccine hesitancy, confidence and uptake among Black and Latinx young adults in Georgia (ages 18-24) on college campuses and in the community, using a community-engaged approach. The CDC funded existing Prevention Research Centers in a rapid response effort (Vaccine Confidence Network, VCN) to increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake. GA PEACH was governed by a Community Coalition Board (CCB), led by young adults, that was rapidly employed through existing community-based participatory research and community- engaged translational research governance structures. The CCB ensured continuous young adult leadership, translation of data, and relevance of all employed approaches to ensure that findings were translated with, co-created by, and relevant to priority young adult communities. Using our network of existing community and academic partners, we recruited 12 young adults to serve as Peer and Community Champions. Champions developed and implemented culturally appropriate health communications and other activities to inform and educate young adults about the COVID-19 vaccine through addressing mistrust, using appropriate mass and social media platforms, and peer leadership.
Lessons Learned: Peer and Community Champions were effective in providing guidance and leadership in the development of activities to address vaccine hesitancy and uptake. They were invested in the health and welfare of their community and family members and were viewed as trusted messengers among their peers. Key informant interviews and focus groups with members of the community, along with survey data collected by Champions documented the concerns and misinformation that are prevalent in many minority communities and facilitated vaccine uptake.
Recommendations: Community based participatory models should be used to engage young adults to address health concerns. This is especially important during times of health crisis when information is changing rapidly. Academic institutions should cultivate partnerships with communities and other academic institutions to address health issues among young adults. Having established partnerships is important to quickly respond to changing health events during a health crisis.