The YHW program is delivered to during the academic school year, and consists of three program components:
1) Workshops – Workshop training focuses on how to raise awareness and how to be life-time healthcare advocates, and in particular how to transfer knowledge and skills to family members, peers, and the wider community. Topics span health system access and navigation (health insurance plans, community health clinics, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.), disease prevention (diabetes, obesity, heart disease, prostate cancer, breast and cervical cancer, colon cancer, HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, etc.), mental health, nutrition, and the importance of exercise.
2) Mentorship – YHW teens are mentored on healthcare career opportunities for both college and non-college bound students. Guest speakers, spanning a variety of healthcare fields, assist in workshop training and mentorship.
3) Social Media & Advocacy – The social media & advocacy component offers a unique opportunity to train YHW teens on the power of entertainment media as an added mechanism to invoke social change.
YHW teens work throughout the program year to create a documentary film and/or YHW PSAs shared on the YHW YouTube Channel:
See more PSAs on our YHW YouTube Channel.
The purpose of the documentary film is to elucidate the access barriers germane to the YHW teen’s home environment and neighborhood, while the YHW YouTube PSAs serve to educate target audiences (peers, family members, neighbors) about various disease prevention topics. YHW screens the documentary film and/or PSAs for family members, peers, and other community participants as an additional education outreach and empowering tool. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reels, and TikTok are additional tools the YHW teens are exploring to get the word out about important healthcare messages to share.