Challenge
Every American should have the opportunity to be healthy; however, health varies dramatically from community to community, with low-income and minority communities more likely to experience detrimental health outcomes. The health disparities experienced by low-income and minority communities affect everyone. Disparities in health and health care carry a high societal burden in terms of the loss of valuable resources such as financial capital, healthy children and families, and workforce capacity. In response to these disparities, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its Office of Minority Health (OMH) developed the National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities (NPA) to increase the effectiveness of programs that target the elimination of health disparities through the coordination of partners, leaders, and stakeholders committed to action. Young adults are one of the groups of stakeholders whose participation in the NPA is crucial for its success.
Solution
Atlas Research partnered with OMH and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities to implement strategies to engage youth in the NPA. As part of this project, the Atlas Team developed strategies to help the 10 regional councils engage youths by gathering feedback from council members on perceptions about youth involvement in the council and used that feedback to develop a toolkit to facilitate youth engagement on the regional councils.
The team also develops partnerships with relevant youth programs and health advocates to engage youth in the NPA beyond the regional councils. Through webinars and town hall meetings, the team trained partners about health disparities, the NPA, and how minority health and the NPA relates to the work they do. The team also developed a comprehensive Youth NPA curriculum to distribute to partners, which draws on existing curricula around health disparities, racism, and methods for teaching social advocacy and research methods.
Finally, the team is developing a Youth Blueprint to align with the National Stakeholder Strategy and present data, goals, priorities, and strategies specific to the population – in this case, youth. The Youth Blueprint will examine existing relationships, identify strengths and opportunities, and make recommendations for gaps with specific, actionable plans.
Result
The Atlas Team gathered feedback from regional council members on youth involvement and used that feedback to develop a toolkit to facilitate youth engagement on the regional councils. The team completed or is in the process of completing the following tasks:
- Developing partnerships with relevant youth programs and health advocates;
- Packaging and disseminating relevant youth health disparities curricula;
- Conducting town hall meetings; and
- Developing a Youth Blueprint.