“Chronic absenteeism is a community health issue. Why are youth absent from school? And from the conversation?”
You could hear a pin drop as one member of the Newark youth team confidently asked this question of everyone in the room. He and his Next Generation Community Leaders (NGCL) teammates then presented the project they will launch next month: a youth-led study to better understand chronic absenteeism in the Newark city schools.
As the statewide grantmaking program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), New Jersey Health Initiatives (NJHI) launched the NGCL initiative last year, supporting the premise that all youth should have the tools and opportunity to be active partners in building healthier communities for their families, friends and neighbors. Over the past 10 months, more than 150 youth from 11 New Jersey communities have been learning about their communities’ health needs while developing their leadership skills and designing summer projects intended to improve health and well-being. Numerous community conversations and several iterations of logic models culminated in a two-day convening at Rutgers University–Camden. In addition to engaging in fun activities that strengthened this statewide network of young leaders, the youth attended workshops where they honed their communications skills, shared their July projects and learned the importance of casting ballots in local, state, and national elections.
[For more on this story, go to https://www.njhi.org/news/new-...althier-communities/]
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