On Thursday July 21st, community members met at People’s Community Clinic for the first ever Youth Advisory Council (YAC) meeting. YAC members include teens and young adults (ages 15-25), parents, and youth-serving professionals who want to make a difference in their community. The YAC members will work as a team to share ideas and take action to help youth in their community stay healthy. This will include making health clinics more youth-friendly and helping teens and young adults get high quality health care. The Council gives teens and young adults the opportunity to be a voice for themselves and their peers.
The purpose of the first YAC meeting was to learn more about what it means to be a part of the YAC, actively brainstorm ways to make PCC more teen and young adult friendly, and meet other people who want to make a difference in your community. And of course, we accomplished all this while eating delicious breakfast tacos! The YAC also discussed health risks that many teens and young adults face, including: school stress, drug/alcohol use, expressing personal identity, body image, and diet and nutrition. The YAC will focus on these and other issues in the future.