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Bithaniya Fieseha, a highschool senior, graduates from the Youth Public Well being Ambassador program run by the Fairfax County Well being Division at West Springfield Excessive Faculty in Fairfax County, Va.
Will Schermerhorn/Fairfax County Well being Division
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Bithaniya Fieseha, a highschool senior, graduates from the Youth Public Well being Ambassador program run by the Fairfax County Well being Division at West Springfield Excessive Faculty in Fairfax County, Va.
Will Schermerhorn/Fairfax County Well being Division
Of all of the issues she may have carried out on her summer time trip, Bithaniya Fieseha, a senior at West Springfield Excessive Faculty in Fairfax County, Va., determined to review power illness, psychological well being and speak to tracing. A few of her pals did not perceive the enchantment.
“I really feel like persons are like, ‘You wasted your summer time,’ ” she says. “However I loved it. I actually loved assembly up with everybody, going via the battle.”
She practiced taking temperatures, weight and blood stress readings on her household. Fieseha topped it off with an internship at an area well being clinic.
Her laborious work paid off. On a current Saturday morning, Fieseha grew to become considered one of 14 highschool college students to graduate from the Youth Public Well being Ambassador program run by the Fairfax County Well being Division. It trains youngsters from underserved communities to change into well being staff and prepares them for potential careers in public well being. The coursework was designed by the Morehouse Faculty of Medication.
“I believe this program provides us a voice as a result of, as minorities, we’re capable of see these disparities” in our personal environment, says Nayla Bonilla, a junior at Justice Excessive Faculty, “I noticed that there have been so many various avenues into drugs and issues we will do sooner or later that may assist our communities thrive.”
The coaching goals to assist shore up the general public well being workforce, which is in unhealthy form because the COVID-19 pandemic enters its fourth yr. A wave of retirements is predicted to additional pressure well being departments over the following few years.
“We have to not solely entice folks into the fields of healthcare and public well being, however we have to entice folks of coloration,” says Dr. Gloria Addo-Ayensu, director of the Fairfax County Well being Division, “We want folks from our Black and Brown communities to interact within the subject so they can clarify to their communities what well being is all about.”
Dr. Gloria Addo-Ayensu, director of the Fairfax County Well being Division, spoke with college students graduating from the Public Well being Youth Ambassador Program on the John Lewis Excessive Faculty library.
Will Schermerhorn/Fairfax County Well being Division
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Dr. Gloria Addo-Ayensu, director of the Fairfax County Well being Division, spoke with college students graduating from the Public Well being Youth Ambassador Program on the John Lewis Excessive Faculty library.
Will Schermerhorn/Fairfax County Well being Division
Coaching provides teenagers a leg up on future well being careers
The well being division is working with Edu-Futuro, an area nonprofit, to recruit college students with an curiosity in drugs from Fairfax excessive faculties and assist begin their profession paths.
“On the finish of the day, it is that they efficiently enroll in a university or a postsecondary establishment, the place they’ll have the ability to get a level in a health-related profession – after which 4 years later, they get their first skilled job,” says Jorge Figueredo, Edu-Futuro’s director.
Jorge Figueredo, director on the nonprofit Edu-Futuro, tells college students that the Youth Ambassador Program units them on a path to careers in well being.
Will Schermerhorn/Fairfax County Well being Division
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Jorge Figueredo, director on the nonprofit Edu-Futuro, tells college students that the Youth Ambassador Program units them on a path to careers in well being.
Will Schermerhorn/Fairfax County Well being Division
This system focuses on Hispanic, African-American and African college students from low-income households. In Fairfax County, as in a lot of the nation, these racial and ethnic minority teams had been hardest hit by COVID.
“There have been some actual challenges round well being literacy,” says Anthony Mingo, director of group well being improvement on the Fairfax County Well being Division. Blended messages initially of the pandemic blended with historic distrust in medical establishments. “It created a depressing stew of misinformation,” he says.
Anthony Mingo (middle), from the Fairfax Well being Division, implored college students to think about careers that serve their communities, flanked by Jorge Figueredo from Edu-Futuro (left) and program supervisor Andrea Scott (proper).
Will Schermerhorn/Fairfax County Well being Division
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Anthony Mingo (middle), from the Fairfax Well being Division, implored college students to think about careers that serve their communities, flanked by Jorge Figueredo from Edu-Futuro (left) and program supervisor Andrea Scott (proper).
Will Schermerhorn/Fairfax County Well being Division
The brand new youth ambassadors are fired up about public well being. Fieseha discovered the hyperlinks between surroundings and well being illuminating. “If you do not have entry to a grocery retailer, you are extra prepared to purchase [fast food] as a result of that’s the closest meals supply you have got, which contributes to diabetes and hypertension,” she says. “How we entry our meals, how we make revenue – we do not notice how a lot of an influence that makes to our psychological well being and our bodily well being.”
Studying about some shady episodes from the historical past of medication helped Bonilla perceive how the medical subject misplaced belief with some teams.
“[The lessons] had been speaking in regards to the historical past of moral concerns, which I actually hadn’t thought of, just like the most cancers cells from a affected person that had been used with out their consent,” she says, “And it simply made me assume how minority teams had been actually taken benefit of for medical analysis.”
Bonilla plans to arrange a well being honest to deal with well being disparities; she thinks she may change into a pediatrician, to raised serve Spanish-speaking children and oldsters. Fieseha plans to start out an city backyard at her college and desires to change into a worldwide advocate for HIV/AIDS in Africa and significantly Ethiopia, the place her household is from.
Federal funding to spice up well being literacy
Each are among the many first graduates within the pilot program, which expects to have educated ninety college students as well being staff by subsequent summer time. With a finances of round $240,000, in line with the well being division, it is a small sliver in a two-year, $3.8 million Fairfax County-wide undertaking to enhance entry to COVID data and increase well being literacy amongst weak teams.
The federal authorities is offering the funding. Fairfax County is considered one of 73 native governments to obtain a grant beneath a $250 million initiative from the Division of Well being and Human Companies final yr. Every grantee is attempting out its personal approaches to enhance well being understanding of their communities, says Roslyn Holliday Moore, deputy program director for HHS’s Workplace of Minority Well being.
Roslyn Holliday Moore, from the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies, says the Youth Public Well being Ambassador Program might be tailored to different locations.
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Roslyn Holliday Moore, from the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies, says the Youth Public Well being Ambassador Program might be tailored to different locations.
Will Schermerhorn/Fairfax County Well being Division
The hope is that tasks, like Fairfax County’s Youth Ambassador coaching, might be tailored elsewhere. “For many who are taking a look at whether or not persons are capable of belief, maintain the belief, interact others, that is greater than profitable,” Holliday Moore says, “And it isn’t laborious to duplicate.”
Holliday Moore addresses a small crowd of oldsters and college students gathered at a highschool library for a commencement ceremony. “Don’t quit, keep the course,” she says. “You might be making a future right here.”
Afterward, there’s applause and tears of pleasure. A Peruvian dance champion performs a conventional dance. An assistant principal sings a line from Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds and assures college students he is not nervous a few factor — with them on the helm.
After some lengthy, bleak pandemic years, everybody within the room is glad to be celebrating teenagers getting their begin in public well being.
Christopher Thompson, assistant principal on the John R. Lewis Excessive Faculty, tells college students that he is assured in a future the place they’re in cost.
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Christopher Thompson, assistant principal on the John R. Lewis Excessive Faculty, tells college students that he is assured in a future the place they’re in cost.
Will Schermerhorn/Fairfax County Well being Division
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