After careful consideration, we have decided to put the FACES Summer Medical Academy on hiatus this summer (2023) in order to make some important updates to the curriculum and structure of the program. We remain committed to providing the best possible experience for the young people in our programs and to equip them with timely and relevant skills for the current health career landscape. Don’t worry, we’ll be back better than ever in Summer 2024! 

To stay up-to-date on next year’s program, sign up for our newsletter here and check our social media for more announcements.

Last month, Kaiser Health News reporter Heidi DeMarco visited our FACES program in Sacramento, CA, to observe the Public Health Youth Corps students in action! With youth opioid overdose deaths on the rise, Heidi wanted to learn more about how PHYC students are trained to use Narcan and become advocates for overdose prevention in their communities. She observed a workshop, interviewed students, and saw them in action conducting lunchtime outreach with their peers at Hiram Johnson High School. Thank you to Heidi and Kaiser Health News for highlighting the amazing work of our FACES Sacramento students!

Listen to the resulting Spanish radio segment on Radio Billingue, which featured an interview with our Founding Director, Dr. Tomas Magana, HERE (11/18, starting at 9:19).

And view the Instagram reel from Kaiser Health News about the FACES Sacramento PHYC HERE.

Dear FACES Community-

As both a pediatrician and program director, it has been very difficult to see how the COVID pandemic has impacted the physical, mental, emotional and educational well-being and health status of the youth and communities we work with. On top of that, the pandemic literally forced us to change the way we could provide services to young people.  And yet, while the temporary closures of schools and healthcare organizations required us to put our traditional FACES programs on momentary pause, our resolve to continue serving young people has strengthened.

2022 has been our year of rejuvenation, innovation, and responsive action. One important example of this was the launch of our COVID vaccine peer educator project. Funded by HRSA, this project supports youth focused peer vaccine education as a strategy to combat the pandemic. Leveraging our existing FACES Public Health Youth Corps program, FACES students in California, New Mexico, Colorado and Michigan were trained to become peer/near-peer COVID vaccine educators as a way to reduce vaccine stigma, promote accurate vaccine education, and ultimately increase vaccination rates in communities that have been hardest hit by COVID-19. With the awareness that many FACES youth already serve as de facto health navigators and sources of health information for their families, we trained FACES students to develop and lead outreach activities that promoted vaccine education and COVID prevention awareness among their friends, families and community members. Simultaneously, students achieved important certifications in Mental Health First Aid, CPR, Stop the Bleed and opiate overdose intervention (Narcan). To date, 469 FACES students have conducted literally hundreds of outreach activities that have increased community awareness of the vaccine and COVID prevention.  I am proud to share some of the outcomes of this important work in the highlights below and recognize my team members for their extraordinary efforts to bring this project to fruition.

We are grateful that 2022 has also brought the return of much of our traditional FACES programming. Many FACES students returned to work-based learning internships in hospitals and clinics this Fall, and most of our wonderful Program Coordinators returned to classroom teaching.  We have recently welcomed our next cohort of Youth Advisory Council members, comprised of current students and alumni from across our various programs.

Nonetheless, our commitment to developing innovative and responsive approaches to youth development, training and career preparation will continue. It is what we do, it is what we must do to ensure that youth get the services they need.  It is what we must do to address the profound workforce gaps in the health professions that were magnified by the pandemic.  I am proud that in spite of tremendous challenges this past year, we have continued to serve young people in very meaningful ways.

On that note, I hope that you can support our ongoing efforts to develop and implement programs for youth by offering a generous tax-deductible donation to the FACES for the Future Coalition.  Every amount helps. Truly.  Thank you for your support, in advance.

Wishing you all a very blessed holiday season,

Tomás A. Magaña, MD, MA, FAAP

Founding Director

FACES Public Health Youth Corps

When crisis hits – we look to leaders.  We seek voices and actions that reassure – voices that offer clear information – and people who show us a pathway to help ourselves and our communities.

COVID-19 has had a deep and lasting global impact – causing so much pain and disruption – and it isn’t done with us yet!  BA.5 is showing itself to be even more transmissible than Omicron and that feels hard to imagine.

We need leaders now more than ever, and the FACES Public Health Youth Corps have heard their call to service.

Established in 2017, the PHYC activates high school students in a number of ways:

• Basic public health training including understanding health disparities and the social determinants of health
• Professional certification in Basic Life Support/CPR, Mental Health First Aid, Narcan (for opioid overdose intervention) and Stop the Bleed (for trauma and injury)
• Leadership opportunities focused on addressing a public health issue affecting their families, peers and community

The purpose of the PHYC is to support individual students into the next phases of their careers – but it is also to leverage their leadership now rather than wait.  And each time we graduate a cohort – we have a new batch of young people trained to manage crisis in our communities!  It’s just a good thing all around.

When COVID-19 hit, we knew FACES students are the very best ambassadors for helping us stop the spread of the disease.  We knew they have the inherent resilience and skills to educate their peers, near-peers and families about the COVID vaccine, mask wearing, social distancing and more.  We knew they search for ways to help, and want to do what they can to protect those who are most vulnerable.

With generous funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the American Rescue Plan of 2021 – FACES implemented the Public Health Youth Corps in California, New Mexico, Colorado and Michigan and students focused their efforts on stopping the spread of COVID-19.  I can’t begin to explain how proud we are of their work!  We are SO proud in fact, that we want to share some impressive data with you.

Here are some of the AMAZING accomplishments of the FACES Public Health Youth Corps in this academic year!  And stay tuned – more PHYC students are on-boarding now.  They will help us address COVID, mental health challenges, climate change, chronic disease and so much more.  I can’t wait to see what they do next!

Brooke Briggance

Deputy Director