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Minnesota Partnership for Adolescent and Young Adult Health |
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April 2024
 Minnesota Partnership for Adolescent and Young Adult (MNPAH) is an action plan to guide adolescent and young adult health in Minnesota. This collaboratively developed plan was created to motivate, engage, and inspire action. It recognizes the important contributions and amazing ideas that exist across our great state. Each month this newsletter will highlight a priority from the plan and showcase an adolescent health partner in Minnesota.
In this edition
Increase the opportunities for young people to actively influence the issues that affect their health and development.
According to the 2022 Minnesota student survey, one in two Minnesota 8th, 9th, and 11th graders participate on sports teams, but only one in 20 participate in student leadership activities. The goal of this recommendation is to engage young people authentically as leaders to address critical issues in their communities. The action steps in this priority focus on strengthening and improving these leadership opportunities for young people in Minnesota.
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Authentic youth leadership opportunities provide young people with opportunities to grow and thrive. Through these experiences, young people learn, have fun, challenge themselves, and build relationships. Given a change to lead, young people gain a strong sense of self, develop life skills, and connect to the communities in which they grow. When youth voices are heard, policies are more effective, programs are more engaging, and the community is a better place.
The MNPAH Opportunities for Youth to Engage has Minnesota-specific resources with youth leadership program examples and guides to get started. National Adolescent Health Action Plan Take Action Toolkit (PDF) has several national resources under goal two on youth engagement and youth leadership.
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Meaningful youth engagement is at the heart of Northfield’s Youth First initiative. The Youth First initiative is a collaborative community effort between Healthy Community Initiative, the City of Northfield, and Youthprise with a goal to ensure that Northfield is a great place for all youth to live and grow up. Central to their youth engagement programs are the Northfield YouthBank and Youth on Boards.
Northfield YouthBank is the longest running youth-run grant making initiative in Minnesota and the first established YouthBank in the United States. To date, this initiative has granted $170,00 in youth led efforts designed to meet local needs. Larger projects have been a new playground for a mobile home community and a hydration station at the local skateboard park. Youth are owners of the grant making process and have decided to fund projects that address equity issues and increase safe places for young people to gather.
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 Northfield Youth First also hosts a Youth on Boards program that offers young people a unique experience of getting involved with leadership opportunities on local governance boards. Youth First’s youth engagement coordinator provides training for young people on how to be an active board member along with training for adults in working with young people and youth engagement. Youth are placed on boards based on their interests and availability. In 2023, 125 Northfield area young people served on 39 local boards, commissions, and committees. These included governmental boards, school district committees, and nonprofit organizations. For more information on Northfield’s Youth First initiatives, visit Youth First.
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month
The Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault created a simple social media toolkit to help groups and organizations with their social media content creation efforts during sexual assault awareness month. The toolkit offers 17 social media posts with downloadable graphics under four different themes: general advocacy, prevention skill building, developing share language/having difficult conversations, and collective action and awareness.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month
MDH has created a messaging toolkit that includes ideas and resources to raise awareness around mental health and suicide prevention. It includes key messages organized around five weekly themes that can be used for emails, newsletter content, social media posts, images, as well as additional resources to supplement existing activities. Help promote well-being activities and tag your positive initiatives using #YouMatterMN.
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Resource: NAMI NextGen newsletter
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has developed a youth-to-youth newsletter that connects aspiring mental health advocates with tools, information and resources. Read the March edition and sign up to receive future issues at NAMI NEXTGEN Connexion.
University of Minnesota Extension offers youth development resources
The University of Minnesota Extension program offers a variety of evidence-based youth development resources including trainings, an insight blog, podcasts, and a curriculum library. Please visit their Families and youth web page to explore all the youth development resources they offer.
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Virtual meeting: Human trafficking prevention and response network (HTPRN) meeting
The HTPRN will host its next virtual meeting April 22. The agenda for the meeting includes:
- Presentation on Native American youth and human trafficking.
- Presentation by Hennepin County SANE nurses.
- Legislative updates.
Date: April 22
Time: 9 – 10:30 a.m.
Registration link: HTPRN Meeting registration
Webinar: MDH STI & HIV Annual Report
The infectious disease epidemiology, prevention and control division at the Minnesota Department of Health will be hosting the Annual HIV/STD Data Release Live Webinar. The webinar will go over highlights of STD and HIV surveillance data for 2023 and conclude with a Q&A session.
Date: April 25
Time: 2-3 p.m.
Forum: LGBTQ+ Health in Hennepin County: Data, resiliency, and action
Hennepin County is hosting a community forum on LGBTQ+ health in Hennepin County. The program includes:
- Learn about the unique health experiences and needs of LGBTQ+ youth and adults in Hennepin County.
- Strengths, resiliencies, mental health, access to healthcare, and substance use in the LGBTQ+ communities.
- Collaborate and discuss ways to use data to create meaningful system and policy change for LGBTQ+ communities.
Date: April 30
Time: 8:30 a.m. – noon
Location: Auditorium (S122), 625 S 4th Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55415
RSVP: Forum: LGBTQ+ Health in Hennepin County: Data, resiliency, and action
Conference: Canvas Health suicide prevention conference
Join your colleagues for a full day suicide prevention conference hosted by Canvas Health and funded by the Minnesota Department of Health. The conference is free to attend, and breakfast and lunch will be provided. This conference features incredible learning opportunities and resources as well as opportunities to network with other working in the fields of mental health and suicide prevention.
Date: May 2
Time: 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Location: Hamline University – West Hall, 1492 Hewitt Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55104
Cost: The event is free to attend, but registration is required to ensure accurate counts for meals and session attendance. Canvas Health Suicide Prevention Conference Registration
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Sexual violence prevention grant program request for proposals
The Minnesota Department of Health sexual violence prevention program announces a request for proposals for the sexual violence prevention grant program. The goal of this grant program is to support activities that stop sexual violence from occurring by promoting health equity. Program activities are required to focus on at least one of the following three priority areas: strengthen economic supports for individuals and families, create protective environments, or promote social norms that protect against violence. To learn more about this opportunity, visit the MDH sexual violence prevention grant request for proposals webpage.
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The Minnesota Partnership for Adolescent and Young Adult Health
This collaboratively developed plan was designed to support community-based efforts – whether led by health systems, youth-serving organizations, or young people – with a unifying vision, and collectively agreed-upon priorities to motivate, engage, and inspire action. If your agency has a program that you would like featured or an event or resource you’d like to share with this network, please send it to us at Health.AdolescentHealth@state.mn.us.
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