In August 2021, FACES for the Future was awarded a grant (“Local Community-Based Workforce to Increase COVID-19 Vaccine Access”) from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to support youth focused peer vaccine education. Leveraging our existing Public Health Youth Corps program, we are training FACES youth from our programs in California, New Mexico, Colorado and Michigan to become peer/near-peer COVID vaccine educators. Students will be trained how to talk to their friends, families and community members about the COVID vaccine and about other ways to stop the spread of COVID. Three-hundred FACES students will participate in the program and will be additionally supported 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 stopping the spread of COVID in our communities.
We want to thank all of our FACES program partners for working with us to support FACES students! Also thank you to Public Health Institute and our partners at CACHE for supporting our navigation of this award. And of course, thank to our partners at HRSA for believing in the power of young people as much as we do.