About the FACES Public Health Youth Corps
Launched in 2021, our Public Health Youth Corps (PHYC) is an enrichment to our traditional FACES programming developed as a result of a grant we received from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to support youth focused peer vaccine education during the COVID pandemic. FACES PYHC Youth Scholars from our programs in California, New Mexico, Colorado and Michigan were trained to become peer/near-peer COVID vaccine educators to provide information about the COVID vaccine in their communities.
Now a fundamental element of the FACES model, the FACES PHYC program continues to train our students in the fundamentals of public health practices and provide them with certifications in CPR/First Aid, Mental Health First Aid, Stop the Bleed training, and Narcan/Opioid Overdose Intervention training.
We know that young people often serve as sources of information and advocacy for their families, and as such, can be an important resource for addressing current public health issues in their communities.
Beginning September 2023, our FACES PYHC Scholars will be trained to become Peer Substance Misuse Educators as a result of a grant awarded by the OJJDP. Learn more.
PHYC Student Videos
Our FACES Public Health Youth Corps Scholars are leaders, advocates, and ambassadors of public health in their communities. Through the HRSA Peer Vaccine Educator project, they created beautiful flyers, thoughtful social media posts, and youth-friendly videos to educate their peers and communities about COVID-19 vaccine, testing, and prevention. Here are some examples of their work.
“Did You Know?” COVID Vaccine Campaign by Crawford PHYC students
Michael’s Experience in FACES Denver PHYC
Alison & Amanda’s Experience in FACES South Alameda PHYC
FACES PHYC in the Media
The FACES Public Health Youth Corps in South Alameda was highlighted in a March, 2023 article by Douglas Oakley for “Look Inside KP Northern California” for training students in Naloxone opioid overdose intervention. FACES students throughout the South Alameda County and beyond now have their own Narcan kits, nasal spray medication that can reverse the effects of opioid overdose, and know how to use it. Among them is Jada Solis, a junior at Encinal Junior and Senior High School in Alameda, who has previously lost a friend to the opioid epidemic.
Check out the article HERE!
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. Tomás Magaña, HERE (11/18, starting at 9:19).
California Healthline highlighted FACES Public Health Youth Corps in their article “Latino Teens Are Deputized as Health Educators to Sway the Unvaccinated.” Here’s what they had to say about us!
“It makes sense we should look to our youth as covid educators for their peers and families,” said Dr. Tomás Magaña, an assistant clinical professor in the pediatrics department at the University of California-San Francisco. “And when we’re talking about the Latino community, we have to think deeply and creatively about how to reach them.”
Some training programs use peer-to-peer models on campuses, while others teach teens to fan out into their communities. FACES for the Future Coalition, a public youth corps based in Oakland, is leveraging programs in California, New Mexico, Colorado, and Michigan to turn students into covid vaccine educators.
Check out the article on California Healthline HERE.