Last week, our 2023-2024 Health Youth Ambassador cohort came together for the first time in Bowling Green, Kentucky for their two-day overnight onboarding retreat! Representing 8 different counties from across the Commonwealth – including Oldham, Graves, Daviess, Clark, Hardin, Henry, Jefferson, and Crittenden – our new cohort consists of 13 youth advocates.

The Health Youth Ambassadors (HYA) program is a statewide cohort that engages high school aged youth to learn about advocacy and policy, address social determinants of health through systems change, and advocate for themselves and their peers on health-related, as well as cross-sector, policy issues. 

During this year’s onboarding retreat, students established cohort goals and ground rules, learned the importance of social determinants of health, explored what advocacy looks like to them, analyzed data to identify needs in their communities, and developed policy solutions based on those key data indicators. 

Here is what some of our Health Youth Ambassadors had to say about their onboarding retreat experience:

“The KYA retreat was life changing, I made so many new connections and learned so much. I was introduced to and learned about so many people from all over the state who were similar to me and different from me. I am so grateful for everyone who I meet and who made it possible!” – Lexie, 9th grade, Graves County

“The first KYA meeting was truly eye opening! I learned more about what is expected of us as advocates and we dove into issues we need to solve within Kentucky. Everyone was so sweet and I think everyone within our cohort is going places.” – Josephina, 11th grade, Oldham County

“The environment of the retreat was super welcoming to see people with the same interests coming together and sharing their different opinions about the challenges that Kentucky youth faces, and so much more. Everyone was so open minded and made me feel very comfortable about sharing my personal opinions.” – Danielle, 11th grade, Crittenden County

“The Health Youth Ambassadors Onboarding Retreat was a blast. I got to learn so much about my community and my state. I was shocked by all the statistics, and I can’t wait to learn more and grow with these amazing people. I can’t wait to see all we accomplish this year.” – Issabella, 11th Grade, Graves County

“This retreat was my first ever, and I absolutely loved it. Meeting so many different personalities, building true and genuine relationships, and having an actual voice is so supportive and incredibly amazing! I’m so honored to be a part of this!” – Emme, 10th grade, Crittenden County

Throughout the coming year, students will work alongside one another to address concerns they see impacting their peers’ and community members’ overall health and wellbeing. Our HYA cohort will continue to meet regularly throughout the year and further engage in both local and statewide advocacy and policy projects. Mental health, social and community conditions, school-based health services, nutrition, and tobacco prevention are among the top policy advocacy interest areas for this year’s cohort. 

Stay tuned throughout the year to learn more about our 2023-2024 HYA cohort and see what advocacy opportunities they’ll be working on next! 

A special thanks to the Trager Family Foundation for their support of the Health Youth Ambassadors program.