Youth Voices

What do youth have to say about health issues? Across the state, people are working with youth and collecting their perspectives on health issues through interviews, focus groups, surveys, youth-led assessments etc. Unfortunately, others usually only see this information after it has been summarized in a report by adults.

This section of our web site presents the original voices of youth on various topics. It is designed to enable us all to learn directly from youth by sharing their voices on health-related issues. This section of our web site is designed to make it easier for adults to hear what youth have to say on health-related topics, directly from youth themselves. These youth voices are a captivating and refreshing change from conventional adult-written reports.

How you can use this information:

1. Gather new ideas for programs and services by hearing youth perspectives.
2. Learn more about a specific health topic by reading what youth have to say about it.
3. Review what others have done before designing your own questions for youth. Build on the work of others and don’t reinvent the wheel! Follow-up for more information if needed.
4. Use quotations from youth in publications or other written materials (please cite the source appropriately).

Youth for Environmental Justice (Youth EJ)

A project of Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), Youth EJ empowers youth to take a stand for social and environmental justice in low income communities of color through organization, education, and leadership development in three Southern California high schools.

Common Roots

A joint project of the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) and People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights (PODER), Common Roots provides San Francisco youth training on social justice organizing campaigns in the areas of community preservation and development, housing justice, workers rights and environmental justice.

Youth Environmental Ambassadors of Health (YEAH)

A project of Ma’at Youth Academy, YEAH trains Richmond youth to be the monitoring and enforcement agents of public and environmental health policy.

The UCLA Labor Occupational Safety and Health (UCLA-LOSH) Youth Project

Focused solely on youth issues, it is designed to address occupational-health problems that youth face. Components of the program include Young Worker Leadership Academy, Peer Education, Presentations, Professional Development workshop, research and public policy information.