Background
Oregon Health Authority (OHA) is looking for youth leaders to join a Youth Advisory Council (YAC) for the 2023-2024 school year. The YAC that has been working to support schools and community-based organizations (CBOs) in partnership with schools in their recovery from the impact of COVID-19. During the 2022-2023 school year, 20 youth from across Oregon informed OHA on how to spend $1,000,000 in COVID-19 Recovery Funds for schools.
During the 2023-2024 school year, the YAC will:
- Support the community-based organizations and schools/school districts that were funded to carry out their projects.
- Work with the public health department to develop program and policy recommendations that impact youth all over Oregon. The policy recommendations will be youth-led and driven.
OHA's Commitment to Health Equity
OHA is committed to seeking participation on this council from youth from communities most impacted by health inequities, including youth of color, youth from tribal communities, youth with disabilities, youth experiencing housing instability, youth from immigrant communities, and youth who are LGTBQ2SIA+. OHA will provide the youth advisory council with the overarching goal to advance health equity through their work. OHA defines health equity as:
“Oregon will have established a health system that creates health equity when all people can reach their full health potential and well-being and are not disadvantaged by their race, ethnicity, language, disability, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, social class, intersections among these communities or identities, or other socially determined circumstances.
Achieving health equity requires the ongoing collaboration of all regions and sectors of the state, including tribal governments to address: The equitable distribution or redistribution of resources and power; and recognizing, reconciling and rectifying historical and contemporary injustices."