Two young teenage girls smiling while standing in front of a brick wall.

Youth Advocates for Community Health

Equipping youth to lead and engage for healthier Wisconsin communities.

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Review the Five Steps of Action

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Overview

Empower young people to make positive change in their communities.

The Youth Advocates for Community Health guidebook and online resources help you empower young people to take an active role in addressing health issues in their communities. Through youth-adult partnerships, participants lead projects that generate positive change and enhance the health of their communities.

Both the guidebook and online resources help adults facilitate youth-led initiatives, focusing on policy, systems, and environmental changes that are meaningful to the youth involved.

The Youth Advocates for Community Health Guidebook is designed to:

Provide adults with the tools to implement effective youth participatory action research
Support the process of young people identifying issues, enhancing awareness of communities, and discovering their niche to address issues
Build leadership skills among youth, increasing competence and confidence to address community health issues at a policy, systems and environment level
Enhance the impact of policy, systems and environment work through engagement of youth

Online resources are intended to be used in conjunction with the guidebook:

Access our Course: Groundwork for Youth-Empowered Community Change during Pre-planning or as a stand-alone resource to foster a common language and comprehension of the pertinent issues among participants.

Follow the Five Steps of Action to guide youth through a youth-led project.

Explore the Foundations for Engaging Young People Guide. Developed in collaboration with youth as part of the Youth Advocates process.

The youth-led projects that result will focus on making the healthy choice the easy choice in a community.

Four young people posing at a government office.

Whom We Serve

Community leaders and educators working with young people

Youth interested in community health

Ways We Help

Connect with your County Extension Educator to get started.

Young people working through the process have reported improvements in:

Knowledge of community health
Sense of empowerment
Social trust
Community engagement
Relationships with adults
Community respect for the opinions of young people
Opportunities to practice positive health behaviors
Knowledge of nutrition and community health

A group of young people talking at an event.

How It Works

Diagram showing the five steps which are listed out below. In this diagram they are shown in a circle split apart into equal sections with the first step at the top.

Learn to guide a youth-led community health project. Start with Pre-planning and work through the five steps of action.

Preplanning

Establish group expectations and define the community you plan to serve

Choose your Battle

Assess community health and select a focus area.

Raise Awareness

Engage community partners and build support.

Make your Action Plan

Develop a detailed project plan.

Implement Your Plan

Follow the action plan to complete the project.

Evaluate Your Plan

Review the project and plan next steps.

Success & Impact

Video: Self Defense Adams County, WI

Discover how a team in Adams County, Wisconsin succeeded in getting self-defense classes added into their school’s physical education curriculum!

Video: Youth Advocates for Community Health, Glean Manitowoc

Explore how a team in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin boosted access to fresh, local produce by collecting over 3,500 pounds from the farmer’s market and redistributing it to SNAP-eligible community members!