LYNN — As soon as next Spring, Lynn Community Health Center will open its doors to students between the ages of 14 and 18, thanks to funding from the Atrius Health Equity Foundation under a new “Youth as Change Agents,” partnership.
“To be one of the few organizations selected to do this work and to be representing Lynn is, for us, pretty spectacular,” said CEO of LCHC Brenda Rodriguez.
She said LCHC will launch a Community Health Center Student Fellowship Program. Students will be paired with a healthcare professional mentor who will teach them about what it means to work in healthcare.
Students will have the opportunity to shadow and learn firsthand from the experiences of physicians, peer recovery coaches, nurse practitioners, dental assistants, and other healthcare workers.
Rodriguez added another key goal of the program is to introduce students to hypertension, which she referred to as a silent killer, “in a way that they’re going to understand the realness of it.
“There are so many lifestyle choices that impact hypertension and it’s something that is really impacting longevity in our community,” she said.
Rodriguez said the program will teach students how to properly use a blood pressure monitor and how to test the blood pressure of themselves and other. She added the program will also provide students and their families opportunities to attend telehealth visits.
Another aspect the fellowship includes is advocacy. Students will join LCHC for advocacy day on Beacon Hill and some might become members of the steering committee and join the committee for an advocacy trip to Washington D.C.
“How do we do patient education, community health education, and even understanding what are one or two policies that are important that impact the Lynn community?,” she said.
Rodriguez said the goal is to have the program run for a full academic year and students in each cohort will receive a $1,500 stipend for working in the program along with the opportunity to receive recommendations from health care professionals.
She added students will be recruited through Lynn Public Schools with recommendations from teachers, but LCHC will focus on equitable recruitment strategies, “we’re not just going to be taking the A students.”
LCHC was one of eight organizations to receive funding from the Atrius Health Equity Foundation. It is the “largest investment to date” of $23 million, according to a statement from the Foundation.
The new effort will fund youth-led community health solutions across Massachusetts.
President of the Foundation Dr. Ann Hwang said the program is “supporting youth in their full potential to change the health of their communities.”
She added, “we recognize that youth do so many important things and are really valuable contributors, not just in terms of their own health, but also helping their families and also helping their broader communities.”
Hwang said LCHC was chosen for the grant out of a competitive field of approximately 70 applicants.
“We want to just really note how impressive their work is and how excited we are to partner with them,” she added.
