Public Health Workforce: Essential to our Future
April 4-10 is National Public Health Week.
Join American Public Health Association (APHA) and Healthy Acadia in celebrating the many public and private spheres working together to make individuals, families, communities, and our nation healthier, stronger, and more resilient. This year’s theme is, “Public Health is Where You Are.”
Each day this week, we are highlighting a community health program or sharing an inspiring story from a community member or partner that aligns with APHA’s theme of the day.
Where we live impacts our communities’ health, and each one of us has a role to play. Together we make health happen.
Public Health Workforce: Essential to our Future
It’s National Public Health Week Student Day! Today we celebrate and uplift the next generation of public health leaders.
“The public health workforce is essential to our future. Let’s support these professionals and strengthen the public health authority for better health outcomes in all of our communities, now and in the future. Building a more diverse health workforce would help identify and address structural biases within the health care system to improve health outcomes in underserved communities.” - American Public Health Association, National Public Health Week, 2022.
Healthy Acadia works to support healthy development and resilience from birth to adulthood. Our vision is to provide the positive supports and systems necessary for every child to aspire, learn, and grow safely into healthy, resilient and contributing community members.
We are engaged in a growing number of community programs and initiatives focused on adolescents’ social-emotional learning and development of coping skills to promote resilience and positive mental health outcomes.
Here are a few of the many ways that Healthy Acadia is working to empower youth across Downeast Maine.
Downeast Partnerships for Success is a collaborative effort among multiple community partners and organizations throughout Washington and Hancock counties and coordinated by Healthy Acadia to prevent youth substance use.
DownEast Teen Leadership Camp, (DETLC) is Healthy Acadia’s annual, five-day residential summer camp program for teens entering grades 7-9. The program primarily serves Washington County youth, though teens from Hancock County and beyond are also welcome to attend as space allows. The vision of DownEast Teen Leadership Camp is to empower teens with social, communication, and leadership skills to support emotional resiliency and to deter misuse of substances, including tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs. DETLC is deeply impactful for the youth who participate.
Downeast Youth Action Team. Healthy Acadia in partnership with the Maine Youth Action Network (MYAN) convenes the Downeast Youth Action Team, a youth-driven platform that connects young people ages 14-18 from all over Downeast Maine with peers and youth allies, and provides for them to share, explore, and build upon specific skills, resources, and opportunities to that serve to develop and support their leadership abilities. Downeast Youth Action Team is a multifaceted, youth-driven movement that challenges barriers and brainstorms around issues of civic engagement, substance prevention, healthy habits, social activism, equity, responsibility, and accountability.
“I plan on doing policy work after high school, so this was a career opportunity. It inspired me to try to make the things I do and work for more inclusive and accessible. This trip was one of the most meaningful opportunities of my life.”
Local Youth - National Impact
Our Youth Engagement Team recently accompanied eight youth from Washington County to Washington D.C. to participate in CADCA’s National Youth Leadership Forum.
During the Forum, the youth led a workshop about Gateway to Opportunity (G2O), a workforce development program in Maine, and attended various interactive workshops focused on substance prevention.
The youth also had an opportunity to talk with Maine Senators Angus King and Susan Collins, as well as Representative Jared Golden and share their thoughts and concerns about public health issues important to them, including climate change, gender equality, and other key public health issues impacting our communities and our state.
"I helped represent Maine," shared an eleventh-grade member of the group. "I plan on doing policy work after high school, so this was a career opportunity. It inspired me to try to make the things I do and work for more inclusive and accessible. This trip was one of the most meaningful opportunities of my life."
This is public health.
Click here for more Forum highlights from the youth who attended. To learn more about Healthy Acadia’s efforts to engage and empower youth to build stronger, healthier, and more inclusive communities, click here.
Why support public health?
Together we make health happen.
To make a donation, click here or send a check by mail to Healthy Acadia, PO Box 1710, Ellsworth, ME, 04605. Yes, our mailing address has changed!
Looking for new ways to give? Join our Sunrise Monthly Giving Circle, include us in your will, make a gift to our endowment, or hold a fundraiser! For more ways to get involved today, click here or give us a call at 207-667-7171. We love to hear from you!