The Role and Potential of Communities in Population Health Improvement Workshop Summary (2015) / Chapter Skim
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3 Engaging Young People
3 Engaging Young People
Pages 13-28
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From page 13... ...
Karen Marshall, the executive director of Kids Rethink New Orleans, described how what started as a one-time summer program has grown into a youth-powered movement to improve the youths' overall educational experience. Julie Willems Van Dijk, an associate scientist and the deputy director of the County Health Roadmaps project at the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, reported on a pre-workshop site visit by roundtable members with youth engaged in the United Students program of InnerCity Struggle in East Los Angeles, California, which, after making great progress reducing gang violence, shifted its focus to educational justice.
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From page 14... ...
In all of these projects, Vasquez said, youth are empowered by seeing that they have a voice at city council and that they can change things in their community. For example, Vasquez said, Get Out Get Fit is a summer program run by the youth center in Watsonville.
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From page 15... ...
At the free event, the market and restaurants that Jóvenes SANOS worked with provided free, healthy food, and there were 10 different activities presented by community-based businesses and organizations such as the YMCA, the National Tennis Association, and a local running club. Lacrosse also discussed the Healthy Options Vending Policy, passed in 2012 by the Santa Cruz Metropolitan District Board in partnership with Jóvenes SANOS.
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From page 16... ...
There is also a need for relationships with experts. For example, for projects such as the Healthy Restaurant Project and the Healthy Corner Market Project, Lacrosse said it was necessary to bring in professional consultants to work with the markets and restaurants on redesigning their menus to offer healthier options.
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From page 17... ...
The vision, Lacrosse said, is to train other youth in other communities, to provide technical assistance for them to start their own groups, and to thereby continue the movement. KIDS RETHINK NEW ORLEANS SCHOOLS Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools2 is a youth-organizing program that supports youth becoming thoughtful and capable leaders through the analysis of their own educational experience, said Karen Marshall, the program's executive director.
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From page 18... ...
Food is a huge part of the culture of New Orleans, Marshall said, and the poor school food choices were a real issue for the students. A major achievement for the Rethinkers, she said, was getting the food service provider, Aramark, to agree to serve fresh local food in the cafeterias twice a week.
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From page 19... ...
Once an issue is identified, the Rethinkers conduct youth participatory action research, talking to other youth in their own school and in other schools, in order to get a greater sense of what is going on across New Orleans. They then develop recommendations that they bring to the administrators, princi
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From page 20... ...
Somehow, she stated, the idea that people of color do not know how to choose healthy food persists, but the real issue is lack of access to healthy food. Everything Rethink does comes back to shaping identities, understanding historical narratives, and "analyzing the roots and leaves of every issue," Marshall said.
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From page 21... ...
This is also one activity where students learn how to navigate the media and use it to their advantage, Marshall said. INNERCITY STRUGGLE The evening before the workshop, several members of the roundtable and the workshop planning committee met with youth engaged in the United Students program of InnerCity Struggle in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles.
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From page 22... ...
In the early 2000s, after making great progress in reducing gang violence, InnerCity Struggle shifted its focus to educational justice and improving the school system and facilities in East Los Angeles. Initiatives included implementing culturally relevant curriculum in the schools and ensuring that students had equal access to college preparatory courses across the required subjects ("A–G requirements")
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From page 23... ...
and showed a video of a band from East Los Angeles performing on the subject of real life in their neighborhood, including diffusing the stereotypes.4 The video was a strong statement about people coming together as a community, Willems Van Dijk said. Empowering Students to Become Leaders in Community Improvement Willems Van Dijk shared her perspective on several lessons learned about the outcomes of InnerCity Struggle's work as described by staff and students.
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From page 24... ...
In closing, Willems Van Dijk observed, based on her experience working on the County Health Ranking and Roadmaps Program at the University of Wisconsin, that a common element across communities that are truly engaged in moving a culture of health forward is strong youth leadership. She suggested that there is an imperative to develop the youth voice to truly be able to move forward in building the culture of health.
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From page 25... ...
Targeting policy, systems, and environmental change through programs such as obesity prevention is a gateway to thinking beyond illness to the overall community conditions that foster community health. Reflecting on this panel and on the keynote address by Manuel Pastor, Flores said that workshop participants came to the conversation not as blank slates, but with all of their own traditions, lessons learned, and other influences.
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From page 26... ...
Lacrosse responded that a key measure of success for Jóvenes SANOS is seeing the youth grow into emerging leaders and the increasing influence they have on their communities. Certainly, there is evidence in the built environment where, for example, some of the markets Jóvenes SANOS has worked with now display fewer advertisements for cigarettes and soda, have more healthy advertising, and have healthy foods near the checkout for easy access.
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From page 27... ...
Workforce Development Many participants discussed further the issue raised by Willems Van Dijk of developing talent from within the community. George Isham, a senior advisor at Health Partners, said that part of investing in a community is hiring locally for projects instead of bringing in people from outside who then go home to communities elsewhere.
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From page 28... ...
The same thing is true for researchers and community-engaged research and participatory research. It is workforce development, specifically, developing the talent in our communities, that helps individuals come together to participate in eliminating the health disparities which impact population health, she said.
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