- Massachusetts Service Alliance

The Boston Area Health Education
Center's Youth Advisory Board:
Public Health Service Learning in Action
Uchenna Ndulue
Becca Rector
Workshop Presentation
Massachusetts Conference on Service and
Volunteering, 2015
This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) under grant #5U77HP03016, Model State-Supported AHEC Program. This information or content and conclusions are
those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA,
HHS or the U.S. Government
Workshop Objectives
• Describe best practices for educating youth about
social justice in the context of service learning
• Demonstrate experiential learning activities
designed to foster group cohesion
• Explore challenges to developing and sustaining
youth-led service learning initiatives
Agenda
• Introduction
• Overview of the Boston Area Health Education
Center
• Strategies to Educate Youth about Health Equity
• Strategies to Foster Collaborative Teamwork
• Case Study: BAHEC’s Youth Advisory Board
• Conclusion and Questions
Introductions
Presenters
Uchenna Ndulue, MPH
Director, BAHEC
Becca Rector, MPH
HS Coordinator, BAHEC
State
UMass
Medical
School
Federal
HRSA
BAHEC
City
Boston Public
Health
Commission
The Boston Public Health Commission
The mission of the Boston Public Health Commission is
to protect, preserve, and promote the health and well
being of Boston residents, particularly those who are
most vulnerable.
Public Health
• Public Health is concerned with increasing the health of
populations including increasing health equity.
• Health equity is in keeping with social justice principles.
• Health equity is achieved when every person has the
opportunity to attain his or her full health potential”
and no one is disadvantaged from achieving this
potential because of social position or other socially
determined circumstances.
Source: Centers for Disease Control. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Link:
http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/healthequity/
The Mission of BAHEC
• The Boston Area Health Education Center aims to
diversify the pool of health professionals in Boston
by providing middle and high school students with
opportunities to increase their awareness of health
professions, public health issues and concepts.
BAHEC Program Objectives
 Provide academic enrichment in core subjects to youth
from underrepresented minority populations of Boston in
preparation for post-secondary education experiences.
 Increase awareness of health career options among youth
from underrepresented minority populations.
 Prepare youth from underrepresented minority
populations for careers in healthcare by connecting them
to internships in the health careers and health
professional mentors.
 Educate youth about public health issues, concepts and
practices, with a focus on cultural competency, health
equity and social justice.
BAHEC Program Components
• Summer Enrichment Program
• In-school Instruction
• Afterschool Enrichment
Summer Program
• Six week summer enrichment program with 87
youth participants from Boston.
• Youth are predominantly of color and between the
ages of 14 to 18.
Summer Program Components
• Academic enrichment
• Public Health and Health
Career Exploration
• Internships
• Workshops
• College Preparation
• Electives
• Special Events
• Field Trips
Academic Year: In-school Curriculum
Academic Year: After-school Programs
Fall
• Youth Advisory Board
• HC101: Introduction to
Health Careers
• HC201: Health Literacy
• HC301: Health Equity
Spring
• Youth Advisory Board
• Medical Interpreting 101
• Oral Health 1o1
• Nursing 101
Academic Year Plan
Fall
Spring
Medical Interpreting
Health Careers
101, 201, 301
Oral Health
Nursing
YAB
YAB
Case Study: The Youth Advisory Board
• Leadership program of
BAHEC
• Focused on issues
concerned with social
justice and health equity
• Developed, implemented,
and evaluated a youth-led
service learning project
over the course of the
academic year
Why should health
equity/social justice be a
component of service
learning?
What challenges have you
faced or anticipate facing
when engaging youth in
social justice concepts?
Common Challenges
• Translating health equity and social justice concepts
• Building functional youth-led teams
• Engaging youth in critical reflection
Strategies to translate health equity
concepts
•
•
•
•
Tell a Story
Play a Game
Make it Real
Encourage Action
Tell a Story
• Stories, Analogies, and Metaphors can be helpful in
explaining conceptual ideas around health equity
Play a Game
• Games and simulations engage students in practical
examples of equity concepts
Play a Game
• Several more complex simulations exist to describe
health equity concepts.
Make it Real
• Sometimes it is important to elicit students’ lived
experiences
• This can happen in small group discussions, writing
prompts, etc.
• Personal stories can be very powerful but must be
engaged with carefully.
– Youth should be warned about the context of
conversations and should be allowed to not participate
– For high-risk conversations, trained mental health
professionals should be available.
Get Involved
• After program participants understand principles of
health equity, it’s important to empower youth to
advocate for change.
Get involved
What have been your
strategies to educate youth
about service learning?
Strategies to build youth-led teams
Strategies to build youth-led teams
Performing
Forming
Norming
Storming
Tuckman, Bruce W., and Mary Ann C. Jensen. "Stages of small-group development revisited." Group & Organization Management 2.4
(1977): 419-427.
Teambuilding at Work
• Games and simulations can also be utilized to foster
early group cohesion
Other Teambuilding Activities
•
•
•
•
•
•
Rope Shapes
The Maze
Matt flip
Traffic Jam
Hot Lava
Broken Message
Other Strategies
•
•
•
•
•
Explicit focus on relationship building
Well defined roles and tasks
Incremental milestones and small wins
Diversity of activities
Designated time for contemplation and reflection
What strategies have you
utilized to form effective
teams?
Strategies to increase Reflection
• What?
– What happened? What did I learn/experience that I
hadn’t before?
• So what?
– So what implications does this new
knowledge/experience have for me? Why is this
important?
• Now what?
– Now what could I and should I do with this new
knowledge/experience? What actions do I feel
What strategies have you
utilized to encourage
reflection?
Case Example: The Youth Advisory Board
(YAB)
• The leadership program of BAHEC
• Focused on designing and disseminating a peerbased education program
• Serve as Ambassadors, Advocates, and Advisors for
BAHEC
The Youth Advisory Board
• Time commitment: 4 hours/week over the course of
the academic year (October-June)
• Participants range from 10 to 15 students
• Students who participate in YAB have previously
received training in health equity, racial justice, and
social justice at BAHEC.
YAB: Purpose and Roles
Ambassadors
Advocates:
• Represent BAHEC and
youth in the greater
boston community
• Halloween for
Hunger
• Attended the 2013
APHA Conference
• Represent BAHEC at
job fairs
• Support the health of
Boston residents,
especially youth
• Past initiatives have
focused on obesity
prevention and high
school drop out rates
Advisors for BAHEC
and BPHC
• Provide critical
feedback to program
staff regarding youth
issues
• Participate in focus
groups for multiple
organizations,
including BPHC
• participate in
interview and
selection process for
potential staff
YAB: What do we do and how do we do it?
Each year, the YAB:
• Identifies a problem or social justice issue that
affects youth in the city of Boston
• Develops a campaign or intervention to address
the issue, empower youth, and foster change
YAB: The Process
Team-forming
Members of YAB may
not all know each other,
so it’s important to
build rapport BEFORE
launching into their
main project
Focuses on rapport
building and trust
“Mini” Service Learning Project
First test for the new
team
Main Project and Intervention
Serves as a small
milestone and builds
confidence
-Brainstorm topic and
select issue to focus on
-Name Campaign
Example: Halloween for
-Determine project
hunger
components:
-peer to peer
workshops, ocial
experiment, social
media outreach
Please note: Our work was supported
by the United Way Youth Ventures
Intervention
-Workshop development
and delivery
-Collect and analyze data
from Social Experiment
-Plan final culminating
event that will spread the
message
Stage 1: Teambuilding and Trainings
Stage 1: Teambuilding and Trainings
Activity
Description
Purpose
Icebreaker questions
Ask each member a random
icebreaker question at the start of
each session
Get to know team members, Build trust,
rapport
Leadership Corner
Students would take turns each
week sharing a story, article, or
example of leadership that has
affected them
Understand what makes an effective
leader
Myers Briggs
To help students learn more about
their preferences and working style
Develop self awareness
Conflict Management
Style Test
Help students understand how they
handle conflict
Develop self awareness
Teambuilding
Activities: Rope Game,
Make a shape using rope while
blindfolded as a team
Problem solving, communication,
Teambuilding Activities As a team, Navigate a specific path
Problem solving, communication, trust
Hot lava
across the room with everyone's legs
tied together
Stage 2: Mini-Service Learning Project
• Last fall, the Youth Advisory
board planned,
coordinated, and led a
group of BAHEC students
through Jamaica Plain to
collect canned goods for
Halloween 4 Hunger
• Collected over 300 cans in
2014!
• Video of trailer
Components of the Intervention
• Development and delivery of a 60 minute peer to
peer workshop
• Development and dissemination of a social media
campaign (#noshade)
• Design of a social experiment around colorism
• Disseminated findings at a collaborative, city-wide
youth event
Workshop Development
• Purpose: to educate their peers and raise
awareness of colorism
Workshop Components
I.
Introduction
II.
Icebreaker Activity
III.
Value Voting
IV.
History of Colorism,
how society views different skin tones
V.
Discussion: Impacts of Colorism on health, wealth, and
wellness and the scope of the problem
VI.
Conclusion and call to action
Workshop Delivery
Below: YAB members
presenting at an
afterschool program for
high school students
Above: YAB members
presenting at a local
middle school
Colorism Social Experiment
Purpose: to test the
hypothesis that lighter skinned
individuals tend to be viewed
as “more attractive”
The YAB chose 6 celebrities (3
male, 3 female) of the same
race with varying skin tones.
Then they asked over100 of
their peers who they thought
was most attractive. The
students compiled the data and
presented their findings at the
Social Experiment: Results
5%
Latino Male
24%
69%
38%
African American Male
52%
10%
28%
Latino Female
48%
24%
24%
African American Female
0%
34%
20%
Dark Skin
In the Middle
42%
40%
60%
80%
Light Skin
Based on these results, it is evident that lighter skin individuals are
viewed as more attractive compared to darker skin individuals.
Final Event: Million $ Vote
• Collaborated with the Department
of Youth Engagement and
Employment (DYEE) for Million $
vote event
• Provided another opportunity for
peer to peer
education/conversation about
colorism
• Designed their booth and created
several interactive activities and
materials to distribute to attendees
Final Event: Million $ Vote
Workshop Takeaways
• Health equity and social justice principles can and
should be explicitly incorporated into servicelearning
• Metaphors, games, simulations, and reflection are
useful tools in getting youth invested in service
learning.
• Have students chose the topics their interested in
– After sufficient research and background education
Thank you!
Please feel free to contact us!
Uchenna Ndulue
Director, BAHEC
Boston Public Health
Commission
727 Massachusetts Avenue
Boston, MA 02118
Phone: 617-534-7119
Email: [email protected]
Becca Rector
Education Coordinator, BAHEC
Boston Public Health
Commission
727 Massachusetts Avenue
Boston, MA 02118
Phone: 617-534-2851
Email: [email protected]