Imagine yourself surrounded by people all discussing a current life challenge you are facing, and then presenting you with a description of your situation and what they think you should do about it.
Who are these presuming, all-knowing people? If you are a teenager, they seem to be nearly every adult around you.
And in Marin, they may well be the very adults who, ever since being alerted to the alarmingly high rates of substance use among our teens compared to teens statewide, have been tenaciously investigating and sharing ideas on how to turn this situation around.
But wait. Conspicuously missing from the center of this conversation have been the voices of the very group we are aiming to support: the teens themselves. Realizing this a few years ago marked the moment when the “by us, for you” approach encountered the “not about us, without us” notion. MHYP’s move was to bring teens on board to hear what they had to say, and the Youth Advisory Council (YAC) was born.
The Council is currently led by young adult MHYP staff member Jasmine Gerraty, who meets with teen interns regularly to research, design and deliver teen substance use information and ideas that both teens and adults can really hear and act on.
“The youth voice in this conversation is imperative,” explains Jasmine. “Adults think they have the better judgment, but young people are in on the ground floor of this issue and live in it day to day. They know what’s really happening around them and how to explain it. They are the real experts.”
Youth Advisory Council members speak to students at local middle schools, present to adults at parent ed events, and advocate for substance reduction policies at town council and county board meetings.
“When Jazzy spoke about vaping to our class, the students really got engaged,” a local 5th grade teacher recently reported excitedly. “They asked all kinds of questions and really tuned in, more than if I had delivered that information. Which I couldn’t even have done, because I exist among 5th graders and it was news to me!”
“There is empirical evidence that this approach — called Community-Based Participatory Research — works, in contrast to decades of failures with traditional public health interventions,” explains Dr. Jeremiah Mock, a UCSF researcher and MHYP coalition member. Prompted by a comment from one of the Council’s teen interns, Dr. Mock collaborated with another intern to undertake a local environmental impact study that is now getting local (KTVU) and national media attention (see the CNN story on it here). “CBPR is a well-established practice within the field of public health. It basically means that members of the community you are aiming to affect must be full participants, not just as honorary advisors but have a real seat at the table.”
Then high school MHYP intern Gia Asher (now a UC-Davis student) conducted research for the study with Dr. Mock, collecting e-cigarette, tobacco and cannabis product waste from parking lots at 12 Bay Area high schools. Along the way, they discovered a lot about teen vaping and other substance use behaviors, while gaining valuable field experience in data collection and reporting. The completed study was included last month in a Centers for Disease Control weekly report.
“My favorite project so far,” describes Council intern Michael Danne, a Redwood High School junior, “was helping to pass the Marin County ban on flavored tobacco sales.” To make that happen, he and his fellow teens spoke at public town hall meetings, sharing personal experiences, perspectives and facts. “It was really cool having a direct impact, being involved and seeing the immediate and real results.”
“This [vaping and substance abuse] issue affects every single kid I know, whether it’s themselves or someone in their family,” says teen intern and high school senior Lucy Berry, describing why she is motivated to be involved in this advocacy. “We know the situation first-hand. Parents are not in classes with us, where kids are hungover on a random Tuesday, drunk at lunchtime, Juuling during class, high in the morning. They can’t know our generation’s experience and social norms unless they hear it from us.”
When Lucy delivers substance use news and action recommendations to parent and student groups, the message is high-impact. It’s relatable and authentic. “It is really gratifying to hear from a parent, ‘I know how to help my kid now because of you.’”
“I love the youth-driven aspect of MHYP work. We are not treated like kids here, but real members of a meaningful community. This is happening to US — our generation and our peers. And local action is very important because we can react faster than national movements. This is a very real and pressing issue.”
Here are a few things adults can do to help support meaningful youth involvement:
LISTEN first. Stay curious and ask open-ended questions before inquiring about whether a young person would like to hear your thoughts.
Understand what “Not about us, without us” means. When considering decisions about young people, involve them directly in the process and solution.
Identify and offer opportunities for your child to have a voice in local policy that impacts them. Attend a local town council meeting together, for example, when a relevant item is on the meeting agenda.
Become aware of "adultism", a bias that leads to discriminating against young people simply because they are young. Read more about this here.
Encourage and support your child’s educators toward building in practices that empower students to contribute their expert knowledge to real-world problems.