Community

MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Peer Health Exchange offers health education for young peers

WAVE NEWSPAPERS — Founded by young people, for young people, the Peer Health Exchange (PHE) has worked to fill the health equity gap for youth in underserved communities.

Published

6 years ago

February 9, 2019

Oakland Post

By Angela N. Parker

Founded by young people, for young people, the Peer Health Exchange (PHE) has worked to fill the health equity gap for youth in underserved communities.

The organization began as a labor of love by six Yale students who, responding to New Haven public schools ending their health education programming due to budget cuts, began teaching health workshops in many of those public schools.

In 2003, believing that all young people deserve equal opportunities to be healthy — including access to health education — regardless of where they lived or socioeconomic status, the founding members officially established PHE to replicate this successful program in other communities with unmet health education needs. Since then, the organization has provided mental health, sexual health and substance misuse prevention education to more than 200,000 high school students in New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

The organization literally utilizes a peer-to-peer model, training college students to teach a skills-based health curriculum to ninth-grade students in under-resourced high schools. Those skills include how to communicate effectively, identity sexual consent, evaluate health information, make decisions, seek help and access health resources. PHE launched in Los Angeles in 2009, reaching up to 2,050 young people in the current school year.

“Despite the need for high-quality health education, schools often do not commit adequate resources to deliver effective health education and connect students to health resources in their communities,” said LaDawn Best, executive director of Peer Health Exchange Los Angeles. “PHE helps fill this critical gap and [our] commitment to health equity is at the center of the work we do. I continue to be inspired by the way we show up for young people in the provision of effective health education.”

Best, who joined the team in 2013, has worked in the public school system, the non-profit sector, LGBTQ anti-violence advocacy and peer education, and recognizes the power of bringing different sectors together to address unmet needs.

“We build linkages to preventative resources … and connect students to the preventative care they need,” Best said. “Every day young people navigate difficult decisions around their mental health, sexual health and substance use. These decisions have serious consequences for their health, academic success and their futures.”

Best is particularly proud of the way the organization has created a dialogue for young people dealing with depression and anxiety.

“I’m really excited about the conversations we are having with young people about their mental health,” she said. “I don’t see these kinds of conversations happening in a lot of other spaces.

“I’ve seen ninth-grade students ask honest questions and seek additional help and resources regarding their mental health. PHE’s volunteers do a great job in helping to reduce mental health stigma in the classroom and connecting young people to resources, two critical components of supporting young people’s mental health.”

Despite their many successes, the organization continues to be challenged by how to get the word out to those who can benefit from the program.

“There are thousands of young people in L.A. County alone that can benefit from our program,” Best said. “We are constantly faced with the challenge of how to reach more young people and to ensure that young people in L.A. have access to health information and resources.”

Best believes that by participating in PHE, young people get a greater understanding of what they need to make active, informed choices for a healthy life.

“By participating in our program, students get stronger at decision-making and develop skills in communication and advocacy,” Best said. “As an example, after completing our program students are more likely to visit a health center. They are also better able to define consent and are able to spot warnings signs of poor mental health for themselves or a friend.”

Information BOX

Organization: Peer Health Exchange Los Angeles

Executive Director: LaDawn Best

Location: 3055 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 300, Los Angeles 90010

Website: www.peerhealthexchange.org

This article originally appeared in the Wave Newspapers.

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City Government

San Pablo Appoints New Economic Development and Housing Manager

Kieron Slaughter has been appointed as the economic development & housing manager for the City of San Pablo. Since 2017, Slaughter has served as chief strategic officer for economic innovation in the City of Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development. Previously, he served in a 2.5-year appointment in the Pacific West Region as one of 10 Urban Fellows in the United States National Park Service.

Published

10 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Kieron Slaughter. Photo courtesy of the City of San Pablo

The Richmond Standard

Kieron Slaughter has been appointed as the economic development & housing manager for the City of San Pablo.

Since 2017, Slaughter has served as chief strategic officer for economic innovation in the City of Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development. Previously, he served in a 2.5-year appointment in the Pacific West Region as one of 10 Urban Fellows in the United States National Park Service.

Before that he was an associate planner in the City of Richmond’s Planning and Building Services Department from 2007-2015.

San Pablo City Manager Matt Rodriguez lauded Slaughter’s extensive experience in economic development, housing and planning, saying he will add a “valuable perspective to the City Manager’s Office.”

Slaughter, a Berkeley resident, will start in his new role on Nov. 12, with a base annual salary of $164,928, according to the City of San Pablo.

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City Government

Aaron Osorio Rises Up Ranks to Become Richmond’s Fire Chief

For Aaron Osorio, it started with a ride along on a firetruck at age 10. “I thought it was the coolest job,” he said, adding, “I knew being in fire service would make a big difference in the community.” Now a 27-year fire service veteran, Osorio appears to approach his work with the same youthful exuberance. And that’s good for the city as Osorio was recently named chief of the historic Richmond Fire Department.

Published

11 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Richmond Fire Department Chief Aaron Osorio. Courtesy photo

By Mike Kinney

The Richmond Standard

For Aaron Osorio, it started with a ride along on a firetruck at age 10.

“I thought it was the coolest job,” he said, adding, “I knew being in fire service would make a big difference in the community.”

Now a 27-year fire service veteran, Osorio appears to approach his work with the same youthful exuberance. And that’s good for the city as Osorio was recently named chief of the historic Richmond Fire Department.

Osorio is a San Francisco native who rose up the ranks in the Richmond Fire Department over the last 21 years before being elevated to chief.

He joined the department in 2002 and has served in multiple roles including firefighters, engineer, captain, battalion chief, training director and deputy fire chief. He said he truly loves working in this community.

While it isn’t common for a fire department to hire a chief that came up through its ranks, Osorio was credited by the city for serving Richmond well during uncommon times.

The city lauded him for developing internal policies and vaccination clinics during the initial COVID response, for supporting activation of the emergency operations center in response to a potential mudslide disaster in Seacliff last year, helping to draft mutual aid agreements and working to increase fire response capabilities for industrial incidents.

He’s also led departmental hiring and recruitment since 2018.

Osorio said it is an honor to be hired as chief and has big plans for the department moving forward. He said he wants to continue hiring and promoting for vacant positions, and also completing a strategic plan guiding the direction of the organization.

He also aims to replace and renovate a number of fire department facilities placed on the Capital Improvement Plan and create new ways to recruit that will enhance the diversity of the department.

Osorio said his experience within, and love for, the city of Richmond puts him in a good position to lead the department. He says he knows what is needed and also the challenges that are unique to the city.

“I look forward to utilizing that institutional knowledge to move the fire department forward in a positive direction and enhance the services we provide to the community,” the chief said.

Osorio holds a bachelor of science degree in Fire Administration and is also a California State Fire Marshal-certified chief officer, company officer, and state instructor.

He also holds numerous certifications in fire, rescue, hazardous material, and incident command.

The chief has been married to his wife, Maria, for 26 years and they have two sons, Roman and Mateo.

Oakland Post

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Barbara Lee

Congresswoman Barbara Lee Reflects on Historic Moment Less Than One Week from Election Day

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-12) today released a piece on Medium reflecting on Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic presidential campaign 50 years after Lee worked on the presidential campaign of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm.

Published

11 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-12) today released a piece on Medium reflecting on Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic presidential campaign 50 years after Lee worked on the presidential campaign of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm:

“As Election Day approaches, I’m reflecting on a few dates and numbers that mean something to me.

Zero: the number of Black members in Congress 56 years ago. Next Congress, we hope to swear in over 60 members in the Congressional Black Caucus.

Three: The number of Black women to ever serve in the United States Senate since the first Congress in 1789.

Two: The number of Black women that will be elected to the Senate this year alone if we do our job.

1972: The first time a Black woman, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, ran for president in one of the major political parties of the United States.

Zero: the number of Black women to ever serve as president of the United States.

IF we do the work, we can change that with President Kamala Harris.

As I reflect on what would be Congresswoman Chisholm’s 100th birthday next month, I could not help but remember that my first official involvement in U.S. politics was working for her presidential campaign in 1972.

Over 50 years later, I have been involved in every single campaign since. Shirley was my mentor — she was a bold visionary, a progressive woman who understood that working together in coalitions was the only way to make life better for everyone, to build an equitable society and democracy that lived up to the creed of “liberty and justice for all.”

The historic moment we are in today is not lost on me. I have had the privilege to have known Vice President Kamala Harris for over three decades. She, after all, is a daughter of the East Bay. She, like Shirley, truly is a fighter for the people.

And I know she can move our country forward in a new way. As a member of her National Advisory Board, I have campaigned across our country to help take her message, her legacy of service, and her “to-do list,” as she says, to voters who were almost starting to feel hopeless, but are now feeling hopeful once again, captured by the politics joy and the bright possibilities brought upon by a possible Harris-Walz administration.

Recently, I visited churches in North Carolina with members of the Congressional Black Caucus. The chair of our CBC political action committee, Chairman Gregory Meeks from New York’s fifth district, eloquently and powerfully presented a vision of what Dr. Maya Angelou wrote in her famous poem, “And Still I Rise:” “I am the dream and the hope of the slave.”

Meeks remarked that on Jan. 20, 2025, we will observe the birthday of our drum major for justice, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

He also described that on Jan. 20, IF we do the work — if we knock on doors, if we make those phone calls, if we spread our message — standing on the podium at the U.S. Capitol will be the first Black speaker of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries.

In the wings will be over 60 members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Holding Frederick Douglass’ Bible will be the first African American woman appointed to the highest court of the land, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

She will be swearing-in the first Black woman to serve as president, Kamala Harris, in front of the shining white dome of the United States Capitol, built by enslaved Black people.

In front of her and beyond, the tens of millions of Black men and women who voted for her. The world will witness the hope and the dreams of our ancestors ushering in a new way forward.

As I sat in front of the stage this week at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., as Vice President Harris delivered remarks with the Oval Office behind her, I could not help but feel that our country was ready for this historic moment.

We are not only voting for a Black woman as Commander in Chief of the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world. We are definitively stating that we will not allow the clocks of freedom and justice to be turned back.

We are voting for our ancestors’ hopes and dreams. We are voting for the generations that will come after us, long after we are gone. We are voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Let’s get this done.