Rural Youth Leadership Training Report to the Arizona Rural Health Conference

An Arizona Rural Health Association Initiative

Prepared by Alison Hughes AzRHA Board Member

July 26, 2017

Purpose

• Prepare youth for leadership positions.

• Focus on youth living at the Arizona-Mexico border and low-income urban areas.

• Introduce youth to health care issues, problems and solutions at the community level.

Learning Objectives

• Provide youth with skills to advance leadership capacity

• Engage youth in cross-training experiences that enable information exchange about local and complex issues impacting their communities.

• Train youth in methods of peer-to-peer counseling that contribute to a reduction of opioid use and abuse at the community level.

• Connect youth with mentors and resources to support them in their future careers.

What We Are Accomplshing

• Investing in rural youth through leadership training.

• Building youth skills and confidence for leadership positions.

• Creating a rural youth leadership network .

• Connecting youth to the communities in which they live.

• Contributing to rural, border, low-income area health equity.

• Improving life opportunities and health outcomes of young people.

Two Major Reasons We Are Involved

• Rising numbers of rural youth are unemployed and out of school. At the Arizona border many of these youth fall into the category of “dreamers.”

• Teen birth rates are higher in rural counties than in urban centers and suburban counties, regardless of race/ethnicity. In 2010, the teen birth rate in rural counties was nearly one-third higher than the rest of the.(CDC)

Process

• Raising funds-- donors: – Portable, Practical Education Program (PPEP),

Legacy Foundation, Freeport McMoRan, Regional Center for Border Health , Cenpatico Integrated Care, City of Douglas, SEAHEC, NRHA funds to AzRHA and the generous support of individuals.

• Collaboration in event planning with leaders of five high schools, including leaders, teachers, counselors, students. (Planning Committee.)

Process (Continued)

• Vendors were on hand to provide information to the students: – Arizona Division of Problem Gambling

– Arizona State University

– Grand Canyon University

– Health Professions Opportunity Grant Program

– Pima Community College

– University of Arizona

– U.S. Border Patrol

Flashback to 2016 Rural Health Conference

• During the 2016 Rural Health Conference, participants heard Sofia Gomez discuss her work with dreamers in the context of immigration and healthcare in a documentary photograph presentation.

• The next two slides speak a thousand words from two dreamer youths featured in Sofia’s presentation, and offer a segue to this one.

The Planning Process

• The next slides explains the structure we used during the forum.

Program Structure

• T-Shirt-- Colors by community • Speakers – Adults and peers with leadership

expertise • Small group decision making (flip charts and

markers provided) • Leadership roles – students self select

– Group facilitator – Scribe – Time keeper – Group reporter

Program Structure (Cont’d.)

• Student evaluations

• Graduation ceremony with individually inscribed award certificates

• Trip to UA campus and the Planetarium

Political Leadership Involvement

• Each year we ask the Mayor(s) of the community in which the forum takes place to prepare a proclamation.

• The following slides are examples of Mayoral involvement in the 2016 and 2017 forums.

2016 Somerton Youth Forum Hon. Edmund Domingues, Cocopah Indian Tribe,

Council member; Hon. Amanda Aguirre, CEO, SWBRHC; Hon. Gerardo Sanchez, Mayor of San Luis

Mayor of Tucson Proclamation 2017

Receiving Mayor Rothschild’s Proclamation

Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild

with students

Friday Evening Speakers

John Arnold, CEO, PPEP Ms. Munguio, CEO CAS

Getting to Know Each Other—Ice Breaker

Ball toss– answer a question written on the balls – about yourself; about drug issues. Facilitated by youth of Be Free Pima peer-to-peer education program

Emma Fajardo Olivia Otero

Leadership Success Stories—Young Speakers

Listening to Emma and Olivia

THE FOLLOWING SLIDES SHOW THE LEVEL OF STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

Small Group Decision Making: Addressing community issues and methods for resolving them—2016 Forum Flashback

SMALL GROUP LEADERS REPORT BACK TO GENERAL SESSION—2017 Check the issues documented by students on the paper

A Visit to UA Campus and Planetarium

• At the end of the forum, we took the students over to the University of Arizona campus where they picnicked on the Mall and experienced their first visit to a planetarium.

• A live exhibit of liquid nitrogen enthralled the students.

• The next pictures show the students on the campus.

Exploring the UA Mall

At the Planetarium Liquid Nitrogen Exhibit

Liquid Nitrogen Exhibit (Cont’d.)

Science Games

2016 Graduating Class

2017 Leadership Class—Growing, Growing…

Student Evaluations—What they Learned– Student Quotes

• “You have got to want it, believe it, and live it to your full potential.”

• “The most meaningful thing to me was when we got the opportunity to discuss with our school about a future project.”

• “The part when they taught us about substance abuse because it showed many problems that I did not know about.”

What Students Learned (Cont’d.)

• “How to motivate students.” • “Everyone can be a leader.” • “The importance of community issues.” • “Everyone has a voice.” • “How our community needs help.” • “How to manage a plan to organize a big group of

people.” • “Steps to become a great leader” • “If you do not speak up you are betraying your own

scene.”

Student Projects—What They Propose

• Somerton (PPEP): Form a club to assist troubled teens.

• San Luis (PPEP): Implement a student project to deal with dropout prevention, bullying and drug use.

• Douglas (PPEP): Create a sports club and also a project to beautify Douglas.

• Douglas (CAS): Develop a student peer tutoring project.

• Tucson (PPEP): Form a community service club to perform “acts of kindness” and change the way we think.

Where We Go From Here

• Generating meetings with student project leaders at each of the five high schools. (September 2017.)

• Planning videoconferencing sessions in collaboration with the Arizona Telemedicine Program in which the student groups will report to each other on the status of their projects.

• Get further input from students on the future of their leadership coalitions.

All photographs and text in this presentation are by Alison Hughes. Permission to reuse is requested at

ahughes@u.arizona.edu

END—Questions?