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Student advocates explore teen health at Y2Y Summit
The L.A. Trust Y2Y Summit on April 1 featured frank talk, strong engagement and a Millennium theme.
Honest discussions and strong engagement were the order of the day as more than 80 students and their supporters met April 1 at The L.A. Trust Youth to Youth Student Health Summit online.
Student health advocates from seven Student Advisory Boards, LAUSD Student Health and Human Services, L.A. County Department of Public Health, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Black Women for Wellness attended the conference. The event was sponsored by Cedars-Sinai, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Essential Access Health, Health Net and Joe Sanberg, co-founder of Aspiration.
The half-day learning event included entertainment, activities and six workshops on student health issues, including HPV and other STDs, substance use, daily challenges and safer sex.
Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The L.A. Trust, welcomed the participants. “I am so proud of the work you are doing. You are positive change agents — you are going down in history for improving your schools and communities.”
The Y2Y Summit was facilitated by The L.A. Trust’s student engagement team, including Robert Renteria, Rosario Rico, Mackenzie Scott and Dannielle Griffin. “Engagement was very high, especially for a virtual event,” Renteria said. “Students came prepared to share, learn and support each other, and they returned a lot of great feedback after the event.”
No perfect path
Irma Rosa Viera, a CalState Northridge Student and former SAB member from Elizabeth Learning Center, previewed “Life After High School.” Viera talked about her post-high school experiences and said, “Don’t fear not knowing what your career will be – I thought I was going to be an interpreter and switched to child development counselor.” She added, “There may be downs but finding the silver lining is going to be awesome.”
Rico said there “is no perfect path” and pointed out that there are alternatives to four-year college, including entrepreneurship, vocational training and military service, which provides funds for college. When quizzed about their career interests, students cited healthcare, business, entrepreneurship, computers, mechanics and engineering as top possibilities.
Other breakout workshops included Know Your HPV Facts, The Highs and Lows of Substance Use, The ABCs of STDs, Daily Challenges, and Sexual Health and Safe(r) Sex.
Coping with COVID
L.A. Unified SHHS Organization Facilitator Victor Luna led a panel discussion by the L.A. Department of Public Health (DPH) COVID Youth Advisory Board that featured Evan Bowman, junior at Archer School for Girls; Gisselle Gonzalez, Stanford University freshman; Osiris Lamon, Paraclete High School junior; and Morgan McIntosh, Marymount High School junior.
Luna asked the youth advisors how they had been coping with COVID. Lamon, a DPH youth advisor, cited talking with friends, spending time with family and friends, and giving back. Other student quarantine recommendations included exercise, studying, painting, anime and “lots of movies.”
Y2Y meets Y2K
Zoom backgrounds and The L.A. Trust’s in-house DJ — Program Manager Nina Nguyen — set a Millennial mood with graphics and music matching the event’s theme, “Y2Y Meets Y2K.” GrubHub coupons were sent to students so they could enjoy the event’s traditional lunch.
A social media contest garnered nearly 100 new posts and followers on Instagram. Brayam of Jordan High won the contest and a Nintendo Switch Lite portable game console.
Nearly 90% of attendees surveyed said attending the Summit was worth their time; 93% said they would recommend the event to a friend. Kristie Garrison, LAUSD Healthy Start Coordinator and an Adult Ally of the Carson High SAB, praised the event and its student participants.
A Belmont High student said, “It was my first Y2Y — awesome presentations and great to see other youth leaders!” Taaliyah, a student from Washington Prep, said the Summit reached her mind and heart because it addressed mental health and relationships. Isaac from Manual Arts High School said, “I learned new things — things I can call out and use.”
What The L.A. Trust’s Y2Y Conference meant to me
More than 100 Los Angeles student health advocates and their adult allies attended The L.A. Trust’s Youth to Youth Conference.
The L.A. Trust Y2Y Conference was developed by students, for students, and included youth-led workshops on STD prevention, stress, healthy eating and active living. Here’s one student’s account of how this event, for students by students, impacted her.
By Ashley Diaz
Manual Arts High School
Going to The L.A. Trust Y2Y Conference was definitely eye opening for someone like me who was going through a time when I was trying to discover myself. The stories that were shared really touched a place in my heart, telling me that there shouldn’t be such a thing as giving up.
This one presentation by a group of kids talking about teenage stress helped me discover symptoms of stress that I didn’t know I lived with. When I was hanging out with my partner Taaliyah, I was happy I got the chance to know her better, and we now consider each other friends.
Things like that Y2Y Conference really help bring people together no matter their purpose being there. As a presenter, the only thing that worried me was the possible lack of engagement from the audience. But at the end I was satisfied with the amount of responses I got. I really like to try and give a neutral vibe when talking to audiences to make them feel comfortable, that’s why I usually like to use my humor as a comforting tool.
I believe the honesty is what gets the audience’s attention, and it’s a way to help scare them away from the dangerous things we want them to avoid in life.
As for me, the Conference will always be something to be thankful for, and presenting to bigger crowds will definitely help me improve my skills as a presenter. Also, the vibes and positive energy I felt from the staff was very comforting as well as the help that came from everyone, such as the caterers, the presenters, and the teachers. They really help make a difference in the world and they make people like me want to follow in their footsteps.
Student advisory members train each other at Y2Y event
More than 100 student health advocates and their adult allies learned from each other March 2, 2020, at The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health annual Youth to Youth Conference, held at the California Endowment in downtown L.A.
Members of The L.A. Trust’s Student Advisory Boards from the Belmont, Carson, Crenshaw, Elizabeth Learning Center, Fremont, Gage, Jefferson, Jordan, Locke, MaCES, Manual Arts and Washington Prep campuses attended. The next Y2Y Conference will be held in November.
“Y2Y is for students, by students,” said Robert Renteria, The L.A. Trust’s program manager who helped facilitate the gathering. “Students think of questions and answers adults don’t think of,” he said. “They also have great credibility with their peers. We saw in our workshops that these young people have tremendous insights on student health.”
The Summit included an impassioned keynote by former Hollywood High Student Advisory Board member Wendy Siguenza, who talked about the real-life challenges facing many LAUSD students, from immigration to social injustice. LAUSD Student Health and Human Services psychologist Dr. Kimani Norrington-Sands addressed the hidden trauma some students have suffered and outlined services, counseling and referrals available through the District’s Wellness Center network.
The L.A. Trust’s partner F*ck Cancer hosted an information booth and an online petition to the California State Assembly to expand access to the life-saving human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine.
Youth-to-youth workshops
In the morning, students from Locke presented a one-hour workshop on how to promote HPV vaccinations; Crenshaw students gave a breakout session on STDs and birth control; and Carson students outlined how to relieve stress and improve the mental health of teenagers. In the afternoon, students from Jordan High gave a workshop on how to run a student health campaign on campus.
Students also participated in workshops on:
Wellness & Adolescent Substance Use Prevention project (WASUP)
Tobacco Use Prevention Education (TUPE), focused on vaping cessation
The L.A. Trust’s Healthy Eating, Active Living (HEAL) outreach
A presentation on LAUSD water quality by the District’s Chief Facilities Executive Mark Hovatter
A separate track provided information for the Student Advisory Boards’ Adult Allies.
The conference an exercise that asked students to consider the most important parts of their identities, including ethnicity, sexual orientation and personal passions, a social media challenge, a photo booth and a TikTok-inspired “Renegade” dance competition.
“The Y2Y event is always an ‘all hands on deck’ event for The L.A. Trust, and our entire staff was proud to support our student advocates once again,” said Maryjane Puffer, executive director. “The enthusiasm of the young people is not just inspiring, it’s essential to the success of our programs and outreach,” she said. “It’s why we build student engagement into everything we do at The L.A. Trust.”
Student Advisory Board allies share best practices to engage students
Program Manager Robert Renteria and other staff members from The L.A. Trust led the spring 2020 meeting of Student Advisory Board Adult Allies on January 29.
Adult allies who work with the Student Advisory Boards of the LAUSD’s Wellness Center network met at The L.A. Trust January 29, 2020 to discuss outreach programs to improve student health.
More than a dozen Adult Allies and healthcare advocates from across the Wellness Center Network attended, including Norma Ahumada, Cassie Angu, Hanna Christianson, Kristie Garrison, Karina Gonzalez, Annette Hernandez, Deannie Moreira, Marina Quintanilla, Adam Renuet, Miriam Villaseñor, Stephan Salazar, Miguel Topete, Michelle Torres and Brenda Villatoro.
Strategies and tactics
The half-day meeting, facilitated by Program Director Robert Renteria, included tactics to engage students, best practices sharing and a review of resources available from The L.A. Trust and other sources.
The meeting focused on five student health campaigns prioritized by The L.A. Trust:
Healthy Eating and Active Living, designed to reduce childhood obesity and promote healthier eating habits and more active lifestyles.
Essential Access Health, designed to increase awareness of sexually transmitted disease, increase chlamydia screenings at school-based Wellness Centers and reduce teen pregnancy rates.
Not Us, designed to encourage vaccination for the human papillomavirus (HPV) and reduce related cancers.
TUPE (Tobacco-Use Prevention Education), designed to educate students about the health risks of vaping and using drugs, including cannabis and tobacco.
SBIRT, a Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral-to-Treatment practice used to identify, reduce and prevent the use and abuse of alcohol, tobacco and drugs.
Peer education key
“Our Student Advisory Boards are key to helping students make the right choices, and our adult allies ensure they get the resources they need,” Robert Renteria said. “The L.A. Trusts works directly with these student health leaders and we are looking forward to hearing their ideas March 2 at our annual Y2Y (youth-to-youth) Summit.”
“Every student, like every adult, has the power to improve their health,” Rosario Rico added. “It is up to those of us in the student health community to make sure students have the education and healthcare access they need.
“I am amazed at the passion of our adult allies and the passion of our student health advocates. They are making a real difference in the health outcomes of LAUSD students.”