Youth Leadership Lift Their Voices to Support Health Equity

September 21, 2022 -- Finding ways to empower and engage the youth in Pawtucket and Central Falls has been a key goal of the Health Equity Zone (HEZ), which uses community input to inform programs intended to improve the social determinants of health. Local residents and organizational partners knew that efforts to improve health equity would only be successful if programs and platforms elevated the voices of youth and supported their vision for change. To help make that happen, the HEZ worked with local high school students and the Pawtucket YMCA to create new opportunities for these young voices to be heard.  

Youth leadership in health equity is particularly important in the cities of Pawtucket and Central Falls, which have some of the highest percentages of childhood poverty in Rhode Island — 20.1% in Pawtucket and 39.1% in Central Falls — the highest rate of any Rhode Island municipality. Both cities were among the hardest hit during the COVID pandemic, where organizations and community have come together to respond to emergent needs. 

The area is also home to a vibrant cultural tapestry with 42% of Pawtucket families and 67% of Central Falls families speaking a language other than English in the home. This robust diversity makes elevating the voice of the youth that much more vital to addressing the social determinants of health for the whole community. 

To leverage local strengths and respond to the need for increased youth leadership, the Pawtucket Central Falls HEZ partnered with the Pawtucket Family YMCA to begin a program where youth between age 14-21 engage in direct service opportunities and community organizing.  Three high school students from Pawtucket and Central Falls were in large part responsible for launching, coordinating, and facilitating the youth group: Jinnette Santana and Dhyanne Holland, both age 18, and Mocorah Lewis, age 17.  They have lead the process every step of the way. 

Together, Santana, Holland, and Lewis designed the flyers for the Health Equity Youth Leadership Group, wrote curriculum alongside HEZ and YMCA staff, and recruited participants from local schools.  After attending orientation, Holland and Santana went on to plan and facilitate subsequent sessions for the Youth Equity Leaders, and expanded youth participation throughout Pawtucket and Central Falls. Together, the group of 25 teens defined their core priorities for community change: food security, homelessness, gun violence, and hygiene equity. 

Since the launch, the Youth Equity Leaders have put their priorities into action. In July, they prepared more than 150 meals and distributed them to people facing homelessness in Pawtucket and Central Falls. In August, the group participated in a National Night Out event hosted by the Pawtucket Police Department where they asked through a community survey: “What does community safety look like to you?” and collected responses on issues of job opportunities, after school programs, and housing. The youth are currently coordinating a hygiene equity drive for menstuation supplies to improve community access.

“We meet every Wednesday and come up with ideas on how to improve our communities," said Dhyanne Holland. "We come up with great ideas like organizing a food drive, starting a social media campaign on Tik Tok, and a period supplies drive. We try to give back to the community the best we can.” 

Jinnette Santana appreciates the opportunity to make real change in her community. “The Health Equity Zone’s Youth Leadership Group has helped me gain new skills such as working in a group, how to communicate and promote youth leadership and community engagement in Pawtucket and Central Falls,” says Santana. “Being part of the Health Equity Zone community has taught me how to be more involved, step out of my comfort zone, and gain connections that will help me in the near future.”  

Mocorah Lewis said the work has had a substantial impact on her. “Being a leader in this group made me feel like as a youth, I actually can have a voice,” she said. “We’re always fighting for youth to have a voice and now that it’s actually happening... it’s a wow factor for me. It’s awesome to even be a part of this amazing opportunity. The HEZ taught me more about certain health issues like ‘period poverty.’ I didn’t even know that this was something people went through. With the recruiting part of it, I feel like we are seeing that there are so many youth interested in Pawtucket and Central Falls. I can’t wait to see what we do in the next few years.” 

Dhyanne Holland underscored the importance of platforms for youth to take leading roles in advocacy. “I’ve always known that I wanted to help with my community, I’ve been doing a lot of advocacy since I was a junior in high school and I knew I wanted to continue to do that through college,” Holland said. “When I heard about this program, I became involved in the HEZ. It’s impacted my life a lot because working with the youth you get to see a lot of the different ideas they come up with. It’s the youth's time, the youth are the community.” 

The Pawtucket YMCA has been a key partner in the Pawtucket Central Falls HEZ and has provided support to the community through its “Beat COVID team.” The work done by the Y throughout the pandemic has evolved into a Health Equity Department, and has worked hand-in-hand with the collaborative of partners as a key community engagement initiative and provided boots on the ground for the PCF HEZ.  

“Our areas of focus have always been youth development, healthy living, and social responsibility,” says Kristin Quinn, Executive Director of the Pawtucket Family YMCA. “We are excited to help create a platform to empower the next generation to advocate for themselves and be leaders of change. The Health Equity Youth Leadership Group provides an opportunity to amplify the voices of youth who want to make a difference; and they have been instrumental in recruiting responsible, intelligent and driven young individuals who are passionate about improving our community. They are all working together to do great things.” 

In the fall, the youth aim to continue each of the initiatives and will embark on a new program of Participatory Budgeting — named by community members as “Together We Can/ Unidos Podemos.” Through a direct and democratic process, Pawtucket and Central Falls will decide how to invest $385,000 to improve equity in public health. Made possible by a Health Systems Transformation RI Department of Health grant, residents of Pawtucket and Central Falls will contribute ideas, develop proposals, and ultimately choose by voting on a winning project.  The Youth Equity Leaders have already taken the lead by contributing their own ideas and collecting more than 100 from community members. The youth will continue to take the lead in the Together We Can/ Unidos Podemos project by creating a recruitment video, collecting ideas from the community through pop-up events, town halls, and street canvassing, and helping to develop proposals for funding, and then getting out the vote. 

“We’re excited to see the youth step into roles where they can feel more connected to their communities and see themselves as leaders of change,” said Becki Marcus, Assistant Program Officer at Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Rhode Island and coordinator of the Pawtucket Central Falls HEZ. “It’s been so inspiring to watch them take the lead, and we can’t wait to see how their energy, passion, and creativity will continue to make waves in the years to come.” 

About The Pawtucket Central Falls Health Equity Zone 

The Health Equity Zone program is an initiative developed by the Rhode Island Department of Health to build a healthy and resilient Rhode Island by investing in communities and their capacity to affect change; by honoring the expertise of those who live and work in those communities; and by challenging the systems and structures that perpetuate health inequities. The initiative is a health equity-centered approach to prevention that leverages place-based, community-led solutions to address the social determinants of health. The Pawtucket Central Falls HEZ began in 2012 and is managed by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Rhode Island as the backbone agency, which provides support to a collaborative network of front-line service providers.