Maine School Based Health Centers
MYAN is currently partnering with the Maine Assembly on School-Based Health Care (SBHC) to involve youth in meaningful ways in their school’s health centers. MYAN will be organizing centralized trainings & supporting a network for SBHC site coordinators, advisors, and their youth groups to deepen their understanding and practice of working together to create positive change. Some of the skills to be highlighted at these trainings include: recruitment strategies, youth and adult partnership skills and tips, action planning, policy change, and reflection techniques.
MYAN is working primarily with the five W.K. Kellogg partner SBHC sites in Maine, including those in communities of Portland, Oxford Hills, Lewiston/Auburn, Calais, and Readfield (Maranacook). Lessons learned from these five partner sites will be shared with the other School Based Health Centers throughout the state.
Because of the uniqueness and diverse needs of each school based health center, students have been involved in a range of projects at each of the five sites. Youth and adults at these 5 partner sites have made great strides towards improving their school's health centers.
Check out the National Assembly on School Based Health Care website to see what other groups across the country are working on. www.nasbhc.org/
Below are a few examples of the local successes that have taken place:
- In Lewiston/Auburn school districts, students partnered with adult SBHC staff to increase awareness of the SBHC services. They targeted their peers, communities, and legislators, using the following techniques: creating bulletin boards, planning awareness month, leading legislators on a tour of their center.
- 15 students in Calais wanted to start up a Peer Mediation Program in their school. With the support of their local advisor, the students received a two-day training on "how-to" start their own peer mediation program in their school.
- Students from Maranacook worked with their adult advisors to raise awareness and access to their local health center in the following ways: creating wallet sized resource cards for all students with 800 hot line numbers available, updated current health center webpage with useful links, reviewed and distributed health services posters throughout the school, sent letters to Town Managers to tour the site, wrote press releases to their local papers, and toured local legislators.
- Students from Oxford Hills were interested in creating a more inviting and welcoming atmosphere of their school based health center. With the support of their advisor, the students were able to do an initial assessment, and use the information found in the assessment to present their ideas to improve the health center to the adult SBHC advisory board. Though it was not an easy path, the students persevered and were able to create a more comfortable atmosphere in the SBHC.
- Students from Portland High were also concerned about the general appearance and location of their health center. They worked with their adult advisor to create short-term and long-term goals to change the look and feel of the center so that more students would feel comfortable walking in and using the services. One of the short-term goals included creating a bulletin board outside the door. The students did not want to stop there, they ended the school year with a lot of enthusiasm about painting a mural outside the health center.
Need materials to energize your School-Based Health Center, whether you're a long-established group or just getting started? Check out the following print resources:
About SBHCs
Building Your Group
Action Planning
Advocacy & Policy Change
Presentation & Facilitation Skills
Fundraising
Youth/Adult Partnership
You can also find many more printable resources and web-links under these categories on MYAN's resource pages. If you need help finding something specific to support your group, don't hesitate to get in touch with us by phone or email!
