Track 6 - Addressing the Social Determinates of Health Through Partnerships
Sharing Session - 60 Minutes
G10 - Engaging Youth to Assess Their Own Health: A Novel Approach to Health Assessment in Denver
Wednesday, July 11
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Location: Salon E
Denver’s previously published health assessments provided a large amount of useful data. However, they missed the opportunity to take a sufficiently deep dive to explore health issues facing a specific group; engage community members to actively participate in and lead the assessment process; and ask the target population to define assets and protective factors for success.
This session will present a case study that explores a novel approach to assessing health, specifically, the 2017 Denver Youth Health Assessment (YHA).
In 2017, Denver’s public health agencies conducted a different type of health assessment focused on and designed by Denver youth. A team of young people who live, learn, love, work, play, and pray in Denver were recruited and employed to drive the health assessment process. With support from public health staff, they designed the research approach; collected and analyzed the data; helped to develop the final report; and shared the findings with community stakeholders. By engaging young people directly, the YHA ensured that agency-identified issues and opportunities aligned with youth-defined needs and desires for improvement and change. The YHA highlights how young people described thriving while illuminating some key challenges facing Denver’s youth that differ from the experience of Denver’s adults.
In addition to learning about Denver's YHA, participants in this session will discover the value in utilizing principles of community-based participatory research to structure health assessment efforts and will learn the steps necessary to implement this approach to community engagement in their assessment work.
Keywords
Community Health Assessment, Partnerships & Collaborations, Health Equity
