Health Career Ambassadors working on a health education display.
Health Career Ambassadors at Work
Below is an excerpt from a recent monthly report describing the Health Careers Ambassadors Project, a new health careers internship initiative of the Hyde Square Task Force.
"In March, the youth who are placed in the Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center had the opportunity to participate in the Urban Improv Youth Unscripted program. During the time, they worked with theatrical professionals to create semi-unscripted skits to address issues pertaining adolescent mental health, including anger management and conflict resolution. Although this is the first time the youth have had to worked with public health issues and how to address them, they have truly enjoyed it. They have suggested bringing it back to the larger community and use it as a strategy to address other health topics.
"The youth who are placed in the Brookside Community Health Center have been engaging in two major projects. They have been splitting their time between the medical record room and the Urban Youth Sports Program. They were trained by the Record Manager to help sort through hundreds of medical record files that come through the community center every day. They learned the complex system that is implemented to maintain patients information, which gave them a different perspective on how the health care system works. Through the Urban Youth Sports Program, they worked with younger children and adolescents who have been identified by pediatricians as being at high risk of Type II Diabetes. They work closely with the nutritionist, the pediatrician, and the health educator in developing and implementing a curriculum that is youth friendly and effective in teaching the youth about healthier life style.
"The youth who is placed in the Martha Eliot Community Health Center... is learning about case management component in community health care and how it relates to giving the patients the best care they deserve. In addition, he has also been learning about the database system that is in place to track all patients who come through the center daily.
"In addition to continuing working on the community service project, they embarked on a different literacy topic in March. They focused on Adolescent Health in general and review articles about health issue that are specific to adolescents. They had a chance to discuss how to better outreach to the other adolescents about health issues and living a better life style. They also participated in a “how to choose the right college” workshop with other Hyde Square Task Force youth. During the workshop, they learned how to choose the right educational programs that will best suit their personal needs.
"The group also visited Dr. Darrell Smith, Director of Radiology, at Brigham and Women Hospital. Also the Assistant Dean of Admission at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Smith not only gave the youth a tour of the Radiology Department, he also talked to the youth about the different career opportunities within the field of Radiology. He explained to the youth that Radiology is a fast growing field that is in high demand of trained professionals, and you do not have to go to medical school to work in this profession. This was the first time many of the youth got to see how x-ray’s, mammogram, and CAT-Scan are done. It was definitely a very informative visit.
"At the end of the month, we had a guest speaker who came in to speak to the youth about grassroots effort of public health outreach to the Latino population. Jorge Sanchez, who is a case manager, at the Latin American Health Institute came to speak to the youth about working with populations who are typically hard to reach, for example the GLBT community. The youth learned about overcoming stigma that is attached to certain race and ethnicity, as well as seeing certain diseases, including HIV and Diabetes, scientifically instead of results of people’s wrong-doing’s.
"To address the increasing youth violence issue in the City of Boston, some of the H-CAP members participated in a community forum about some recent violent incidents that took place in Jamaica Plain. Many of the H-CAP Ambassadors spoke up about their daily work at the health centers and as a group, and many adult community residents expressed afterwards how refreshing it was to hear about the positive things the youth are engaged in."
Started in 2004, H-CAP exposes youth to opportunities in the health care industry, through job readiness trainings and job shadows, internships in local community health centers, and technical trainings to strengthen the skills needed to work in the health care field. For more information, please call Yi-Chin at x303 or email her at yichin@hydesquare.org.