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 might have performed on her summer time trip, Bithaniya Fieseha, a senior at West Springfield Excessive Faculty in Fairfax County, Va., determined to check continual illness, psychological well being and speak to tracing. A few of her buddies did not perceive the attraction.
“I really feel like individuals 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 strain readings on her household. Fieseha topped it off with an internship at a neighborhood well being clinic.
Her onerous work paid off. On a current Saturday morning, Fieseha turned certainly 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 turn into well being staff and prepares them for potential careers in public well being. The coursework was designed by the Morehouse Faculty of Drugs.
“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 medication and issues we are able to 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 dangerous 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 appeal to folks into the fields of healthcare and public well being, however we have to appeal to folks of shade,” 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 area 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.
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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, a neighborhood nonprofit, to recruit college students with an curiosity in medication 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.
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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 have 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. Combined messages at first 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 contemplate careers that serve their communities, flanked by Jorge Figueredo from Edu-Futuro (left) and program supervisor Andrea Scott (proper).
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Anthony Mingo (middle), from the Fairfax Well being Division, implored college students to contemplate 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 setting and well being illuminating. “If you do not have entry to a grocery retailer, you are extra keen to purchase [fast food] as a result of that’s the closest meals supply you’ve gotten, 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 affect 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 area misplaced belief with some teams.
“[The lessons] have 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 have been used with out their consent,” she says, “And it simply made me suppose how minority teams have been actually taken benefit of for medical analysis.”
Bonilla plans to prepare a well being honest to handle well being disparities; she thinks she may turn into a pediatrician, to higher serve Spanish-speaking children and fogeys. Fieseha plans to begin an city backyard at her college and needs to turn 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 funds of round $240,000, in keeping with the well being division, it is a small sliver in a two-year, $3.8 million Fairfax County-wide mission to enhance entry to COVID data and increase well being literacy amongst susceptible teams.
The federal authorities is offering the funding. Fairfax County is certainly one of 73 native governments to obtain a grant beneath a $250 million initiative from the Division of Well being and Human Providers final yr. Every grantee is making an attempt 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 Providers, says the Youth Public Well being Ambassador Program will be tailored to different locations.
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Roslyn Holliday Moore, from the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers, says the Youth Public Well being Ambassador Program will be tailored to different locations.
Will Schermerhorn/Fairfax County Well being Division
The hope is that tasks, like Fairfax County’s Youth Ambassador coaching, will be tailored elsewhere. “For individuals who are whether or not individuals are capable of belief, maintain the belief, interact others, that is greater than profitable,” Holliday Moore says, “And it is not onerous to copy.”
Holliday Moore addresses a small crowd of oldsters and college students gathered at a highschool library for a commencement ceremony. “Don’t hand over, keep the course,” she says. “You’re 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 fearful 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
