Voices On Vax - Engaging Youth to Promote Covid Vaccination

In this episode, we talk with the authors of recent article that appears in Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action, titled "The Voices on Vax Campaign: Lessons Learned from Engaging Youth to Promote COVID Vaccination."

This article tells the story of how several organizations, including the Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Hip Hop Public Health, united efforts to create an art-and-music-driven campaign to help young people in the city of Baltimore recognize the importance of vaccination in response to the Covid pandemic and become advocates for their own health care.

To accompany this podcast release, we’re unlocking this article so everyone will be able to read freely through the end of November. 

The Voices on Vax Campaign: Lessons Learned from Engaging Youth to Promote COVID Vaccination

Transcript:

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PARTICIPANTS

Tamar Mendelson
Dr. Tamar Mendelson is a Bloomberg Professor of American Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She directs the Center for Adolescent Health (CAH) and chairs the Adolescent Health area steering committee of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative. Trained as a clinical psychologist, her work addresses the prevention of mental health issues and promotion of positive development in adolescents, with an emphasis on young people growing up in under-resourced communities. A key focus in her research is on adapting and testing evidence-based interventions so that they can be feasibly and sustainably embedded in systems that serve families and youth, including schools. Through CAH and the Bloomberg Initiative, she is also engaged in work to promote young people’s success in school and employment and prevent their disconnection from these key supports. She takes a community-engaged approach in her work and seeks feedback and involvement from young people.


Taylor Clinton 
Taylor Clinton is a dedicated graphic designer with a passion for creativity and visual storytelling. At 22, Taylor has already established herself as a mentor and advocate for mental health, committed to supporting the well-being of others through design and outreach. As a Voices on Vax Ambassador and a Youth Advisory Board member for the Center of Adolescent Health, Taylor leverages her skills and platform to promote important public health initiatives, with a focus on empowering young people to take charge of their health and future.

Lori Rose Benson
With over twenty-five years’ experience in public health and education, Lori Rose Benson is the Executive Director and CEO of Hip Hop Public Health, an internationally recognized nonprofit that harnesses the transformative power of music, art, culture, and science to improve health literacy, inspire behavior change, and promote health equity. Lori leads a unique, transdisciplinary team of artists, educators, and public health experts to create culturally tailored, evidence-based multimedia health promotion and disease prevention resources.
 
Earlier in her career, Lori proudly served as the inaugural Executive Director of the NYC Department of Education’s Office of School Wellness Programs in the Bloomberg Administration serving 1.1 million students in 1,700 public schools, and Vice President of Healthy Lifestyles for the YMCA of Greater New York, spearheading health innovation and chronic disease prevention programs to meet diverse community needs.  
 
Lori is a Doctor of Public Health candidate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health concentrating in health equity and social justice, and an Adelphi University Adjunct Faculty member in the Department of Health and Sport Sciences.

Lindsey Harr 
Lindsey Harr is the Chief Program and Operations Officer at Hip Hop Public Health. A leader in education, public health, policy, and organizational leadership, Lindsey focuses on developing health education and health literacy resources to address inequities.  

Lindsey previously served as Executive Director of the NYC Department of Education’s Office of School Wellness Programs, where she developed and implemented large-scale initiatives to increase equitable access to Health Education, Physical Education and wellness programs for students citywide. She established policies and practices to sustainably revitalize K-12 Health and Physical Education instruction at the school and system levels, providing a comprehensive approach to supporting the City’s 1,600 public schools, including professional learning, curriculum, and programs for students, educators, and school communities. Her career has also included stints in marketing, development, public relations and communications.

LINKS FOR FURTHER READING

- HHPH Website

- The Voices on Vax Feature on HHPH website 

- The Multisensory Multilevel Health Education Model

- Child Mediated Health Communication Framework

- Link to all of HHPH's resources on our Learning Studio, available for free

- PBS NewsHour feature

- BBC documentary series featuring Young Elder and her participation in Voices on Vax

Music for this episode of the Hopkins Press Podcast is “le train sur du velours” by Jean Toba, licensed under an Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License and available at Free Music Archive.