Youth Advisory Council Recognized as Emerging Practice by Association of Maternal Child Health Programs
Pictured left to right: Carla Russo, Pauline Thompson, and Kathy Kuiper
RIPIN is pleased to announce that the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) Youth Advisory Council – a partnership between RIPIN and RIDOH – has been recognized by The Association of Maternal Child Health Programs (AMCHP) as an Emerging Practice!
As part of its commitment to serve as a national resource for members and to support state efforts to build successful Maternal Child Health (MCH) programs, AMCHP collects, reviews and disseminates cutting-edge, emerging, promising, and best practices from public health programs across the U.S. so that effective models can be shared and replicated among the MCH community.
The Youth Advisory Council is funded and administered by the Office of Special Needs, Health Equity Institute at RIDOH. RIPIN employees, including chairperson Pauline Thompson, play a key role in the success of the Council, which is comprised of youth and young adults ages 14-24 of all abilities.
Launched in 2012, the Council meets monthly and provides positive leadership development for its members as they learn about health topics and give feedback on RIDOH programs. Kathy Kuiper and Carla Russo provide additional support as mentors. This emerging practice will now be loaded into the AMCHP’s “Innovation Station” data base.
This data base is available online to all partners in Maternal Child Health and will provide the Youth Advisory Council’s framework for other states to duplicate. An amazing honor and tribute to the power of peers!