Expanding Youth Health Equity in Los Angeles

Mental health

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

PHE aims to tackle health equity challenges for, and with, LA County youth. Young Angelenos face daily decisions regarding their mental and physical health. Socioeconomically disadvantaged youth, youth of color, and LGBTQ+ youth in LA County – communities hardest hit by the pandemic – are disproportionately affected by disparities in health education and access to care, amplifying the difficulties they encounter in maintaining healthy lives. For example, LGBTQ+ students in LA County experience higher rates of suicidal ideation compared to their peers, and BIPOC youth frequently lack adequate mental health support. Recent data reveals rising STI rates in California, with elevated incidences among BIPOC youth in LA County.
Health education is now more critical than ever to support young people's well-being and life outcomes. PHE seeks to address these challenges by partnering directly with youth to provide inclusive, identity-affirming health education and facilitate connections to care.

An LA2050 grant will support the expansion of PHE’s youth health equity programs across LA County:
In-Person Health Education Workshops: PHE's health education workshops focus on building young peoples’ skills in support of their mental health, sexual health, and substance misuse prevention. We hire and train PHE Fellows (ages 18-24) to serve as high-school classroom health educators, as near-peers are well-positioned to lead challenging, relatable health conversations with high-school age students.
Digital Health Solutions: Selfsea (visit selfsea.org) was launched in 2021 in response to the pandemic and the growing needs young people expressed for accessible, free, and youth-friendly health content and resources that honor their identity – especially for young people of color, queer, and trans youth. Selfsea was co-created with young people and has reached more than half a million users since 2001, including more than 20,000 in LA. By making it easy and approachable for young people to connect to app-suggested resources, selfsea increases help-seeking behaviors for health and connects LA's young people to care.
Youth Voice: PHE elevates youth leadership by engaging local high school students through paid leadership opportunities within our national Youth Advisory Board (YAB). Participants help make decisions on our approach to programs, provide input on programming, co-design program content, vet and approve all content on selfsea, and lead educational projects.

By expanding our programs in LA County, PHE will build upon our successful efforts to advance health equity and improve health outcomes for youth in under-resourced communities, all in partnership with those same young people.
Our vision for programmatic success in the following year will include:
· Increasing our in-person programmatic reach to 4,100 from 3,590 in the previous year, delivered by 5 paid college-aged PHE Fellows at more than 18 Title I partner schools;
· engaging more than 10,000 unique selfsea users in LA and launching an interactive Conversational AI Platform (CAP) to provide youth with immediate guidance towards high-quality youth-approved health resources when human support isn’t available; and
· centering youth voice by doubling the number of LA County-based, equitably compensated YAB participants to 13.
In the long term, PHE is committed to continuing our dynamic work in LA County by scaling our reach and impact in these core programmatic areas.

PHE evaluates in-person programs through pre-and post-evaluations to assess outcomes including improved SEL skills, help-seeking attitudes and behaviors; mental and sexual health knowledge; and reduced sense of stigma. Qualitative feedback is also collected from participants and PHE Fellows. Past external and internal evaluations indicate effectiveness and impact on the aforementioned areas.
Selfsea is evaluated through surveys measuring increased health knowledge, help-seeking behavior, and sense of community; user analytics track usage, location, and how young people use resources on selfsea and connect to care. Data show that 28% of users took steps to further their well-being, indicating the facilitation of help-seeking behavior.
As a new program, evaluative approaches for the Youth Advisory Board continue to evolve; however, recent youth engagement surveys have found that the majority of YAB participants feel that they gained health knowledge and are valued co-creators at PHE.