Overview | Psychosocial & Outreach Component | Clinical Rotations | Alumni | Faces Successes

Psychosocial & Outreach Component

One key to the program's success is the work of the Psychosocial and Outreach Coordinator who oversees the implementation of individualized counseling, weekly psycho-educational workshops, the Youth Health Leaders, home visits, school visits, referrals to health services, and community relations:

• The psycho-educational workshops are designed to teach youth the various ways difficult life issues can be effectively addressed. Weekly topics include healthy relationships, STI's and contraception, violence prevention and conflict resolution, as well as domestic violence, community violence, depression, and anxiety.



• All students receive individual case management and counseling throughout their 2.5 years in the program to help them realize their potential at school and at home.



• Each fall, 10 senior students are selected to participate in the Youth Health Leaders (YHL's) Program. Students undergo extensive training that prepares them to educate other youth about health disparities that exist in their communities. Topics include asthma, nutrition, healthy relationships, and contraception. After completing the intensive training session, YHL's provide peer health education at local middle and high schools as well as health fairs. In the 2004-2005 AY, YHL's facilitated workshops at 3 high schools, 6 middle schools, and 4 elementary school. Each school was visited between 3 to 5 times with an average of 30 students per classroom, totaling approximately 950 students who participated in our workshops. YHL's also produced two radio Public Service Announcements about asthma which were broadcast on four radio stations owned by Clear Channel.

As the YHL program increases its visibility in the community, other programs have recognized their impact and have chosen the YHL model to enhance their own programs. New partnerships have been developed with the Hall of Health in Berkeley, Berkeley High School's Media and Health Academy, and several other organizations interested in creating peer education programs. In addition, the Psychosocial and Outreach Coordinator has become a member of a collaborative group that includes most of the peer educator groups based in the Oakland community.

Planned Expansions:

The FACES for the Future: Youth Health Leaders Program is expanding the peer health training and outreach component to more youth. Starting in September 2005, the Chappell Hayes Clinic, a school-based health clinic at McClymonds High School in West Oakland, and FACES have been working collaboratively to expand the peer education outreach program by increasing the number of youth who are trained as peer health educators. The Chappell Hayes Clinic already has a peer education training model that stresses a "peer-to-peer" intervention format, whereas FACES utilizes a "peer-to-classroom" structure. By collaborating, the different models and skills will be shared and integrated in order to provide the peer educators with multiple effective outreach approaches. Both programs are unique in style, will complement each other nicely and strengthen the services for the community, while concurrently providing more service opportunities for the youth involved. This collaborative effort will create 30 peer educators (20 more than the YHL program alone) who will be trained in classroom education, public speaking and other presentation skills.

FACES has also created a partnership with Project YES, a large grassroots-oriented youth center located in East Oakland, which currently serves as the fiscal agent for numerous community grants. Project YES and other community-based organizations have opened a unique community center called Youth UpRising that will serve as the "home" for many East Oakland-based youth programs focusing on comprehensive well-being. Under the leadership of the Psychosocial & Outreach Coordinator, specific programs addressing health advocacy and health education will be managed by FACES staff and the psychosocial team along with community members. Oakland Kicks Asthma, a community-based organization which addresses the asthma epidemic in the pediatric community, and FACES will work collaboratively in the Center's Health, Wellness and Harm Reduction program to provide education on asthma and support to a large at-risk adolescent community.

The new health center, situated at the Youth UpRising Center, will soon be available to youth and young adults residing in the community. Managed by the Division of Adolescent Medicine at Children's Hospital & Research Center at Oakland, the health center will have full FQHC status (federally qualified health center), and will offer free medical services such as school/sports physicals, STI screening, family planning, medication prescriptions and mental health counseling to youth, including students enrolled in the FACES program. This is particularly important since several of our students do not have health insurance. Wellness programs and services offered at the health center will include massage therapy, nutritional support, chiropractory and herbal medicine. Harm Reduction programming will include peer health education, outreach and support services, and FACES YHL students will all be intimately involved in the delivery of these critical services in collaboration with several other community-based organizations. http://www.youthuprising.org