Innovators

Innovators in Young Women’s Health

The Innovators in Young Women’s Health Program (Innovators Program) is a paid internship opportunity for young leaders from the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). The Innovators are engaged in advanced public health curriculum and are empowered to design a health intervention addressing a public health issue within their school district. Innovators projects have ranged from health events hosted in school, writing a toolkit for young women’s groups, and creating media with positive messages for their peers.

Our program is designed to be a safe place where diverse young women can explore and implement ideas, develop their voices, and build self-confidence and leadership skills. Innovators are typically recruited from graduates of the Youth Steering Committee program and from our partner organization Bayview-Hunters Point Center for Arts and Technology (BAYCAT).

Note: The Innovators Program is open to youth who have completed the Youth Steering Committee Program. Learn about the YSC here. Innovators is currently on hiatus until further notice.

Highlights from the 2016-2017 Innovators in Young Women’s Health

The 2016-2017 Innovators cohort aimed to amplify young women’s voices to address body positivity, healthy eating and healthy moving through media creation. Our partnership with the Bayview-Hunters Point Center for Arts and Technology (BAYCAT) made this a success. Bringing together UCSF NCoE’s knowledge of young women’s health and BAYCAT’s knowledge of the media and arts, the Innovators worked to create a short video on these issues to improve the health and wellbeing of young women in their communities.

Prior to filming, the Innovators reviewed data collected by the 2016-2017 Youth Steering Committee in their young women’s health community needs assessment. The Innovators identified body image, stress and self-esteem as having significant impact on the way that young women think about and treat their bodies. In overwhelming numbers, the young women surveyed identified that social media has a negative influence on their body image and self-esteem.