Convention Update from Parrish Ravelli

#Me

One of the things that I have been thinking about at NASBHC is in how our social networks are shifting to be more technological. How these networks are moving online and away from personal interaction. And while we boast our limitless connection to the world around us, we struggle to connect simple resources where they are needed the most. And hashtags, what's up with hashtags?

This symbol that once was the lonely button on the bottom right hand corner of your touch dial phone has lept into stardom and now is the corner stone of wit, underlining sentences, comments, status updates with a subtle piece of whit that gets at the reality of what you really want to say. #lookatmenow!

I wonder, if we all were required to label ourselves, our groups, our crew with hashtags, what would they say. I might want to simply brand what we represent #schoolbasedhealthcenters or the national group that connects us all #nasbhc. But really, there is so much more that I have seen here in Chicago. I hear people talking about "battle scars" taken from fighting for minor consent laws and smiling at all that the past years have brought in healthcare reform. When I see leaders in the health community finding common ground with the education community and, more than that, understanding that silos cannot exist if we are to succeed. I have felt the energy from youth coming together from all over the country to say #wedeserveaccesstocare.

The truth, I think, is that while our networks are continuing to be facilitated online, they are not defined by this. Our social networks are inclusive of anyone who is willing to challenge systems that create health care disparities. So to that I say:

#strengthinnumbers

Parrish Ravelli

Convention Update from Lauren Mosely

Today was a true eye-opener! I was introduced to an agency that has inspired me to reach out to the youth of my hometown of Huntsville, Alabama. Youth Empowered Solutions (YES!) is a nonprofit organization that empowers youth, in partnership with adults, to create community change. They equip high school aged youth and their adult allies with the tools necessary to take a stand in their communities and create change that will positively impact adolescent health.

This energetic and inspiring session celebrated the fact that children really are our future, and they can be the best advocates for school-based health centers! In an interactive presentation, with the youth and program director of YES!, we uncovered the importance of giving youth a deeper level of understanding about current important issues that impact our society like access to health care. Are we giving them the skills and resources to get involved? Do they have a platform to do so? Youth Empowered Solutions (YES!) is not just a philosophy – it’s a movement, and they are working with youth who are ready to learn and take proactive steps in their community to make a difference.

I am motivated now more than ever to involve the youth of Huntsville/Madison County to become advocates for school-based health centers like our very own -- HEALS, Inc.!

Lauren Mosely

Meet the Social Media Fellows: Kristin Anderson

I am looking forward to being in Chicago for the NASBHC conference next week. This is my third NASBHC convention and I always leave with new ideas and connections to strengthen our work in California. (Exploring Chicago won’t be too bad either! Be sure to check out Kyle’s blog post on what to see while in the city if you haven’t done so already.)

As the Associate Director of the California School Health Centers Association (CSHC) I am especially looking forward to connecting with the other State Affiliates to hear about their latest challenges and initiatives. I oversee fund development, communications, board engagement and operations for CSHC – and I am always interested in hearing how other organizations are tackling these critical areas.

I loved the social media coverage during last year’s conference in D.C. Seeing workshop highlights being tweeted directly from the sessions, knowing that colleagues were watching key speakers via the internet live streaming and being tagged in Facebook photos taken minutes earlier on the exhibit floor added energy to the event and broadened its reach beyond the hotel walls. I look forward to being a part of the social media team at this year’s conference. I am especially interested in sharing conference highlights with those who are unable to attend and reporting back to California school-health stakeholders about things of special interest to my fellow west-coasters. Watch for my tweets and Facebook posts throughout the event. Better yet, add your own comments to my entries to share your perspectives and highlights. (Visit the social media booth if you want to learn more about how to join in the fun.)

My dream is that someday school-based health centers will be a household concept. Parents will clamor for them right along with other critical school programs and services and students will get the much-needed services they too often have to do without. I have no doubt that expanding our presence through social media will move us closer to this goal. So, watch for my posts – and join in the dialogue. Together we can work toward a future where all children and youth are healthy and achieving at their full potential!

See you in Chicago.

Kristin Andersen
Associate Director
California School Health Centers Association

Meet the Social Media Fellows: Linda Lam

Hello! My name is Linda Lam and I am one of the 2011 NASBHC Convention Social Media Fellows! I work for Asian Pacific Heath Care Venture (APHCV) in Los Angeles where I am the Clinic Coordinator of the John Marshall High School Health Center. What gave me a solid foundation of using media in community work was the team service project I was involved with through my Public Allies Los Angeles fellowship in 2005. My team service project, called Unearth Media, taught young people about media literacy and how to create their own media (digital storytelling- pictures/videos set to a narrative) to tell their own stories that are often not covered by mainstream media. Since then at APHCV, I’ve used myspace, e-newsletters, facebook, and our website to promote and create an online community where teens have another avenue to gain access to health and youth development services. Currently at JMHS Heath Center, the Student Advisory Board members are using social media as a part of the MO project with CANFIT and California School Heath Centers Association to organize an online video contest about healthy eating and physical fitness.

I am excited to be one of the Social Media Fellows because I look forward to involving all of us (at home or at the convention) in activities where we can effectively use social media to help support and promote the work at school-based heath centers. Hopefully we can then bring those strategies back to our own organization! The potential of social media as a tool to support and streamline the work we do at school-based health centers is limitless. Being a Social Media Fellow encourages me to take more steps to strengthen my own organization’s use of social media to help students gain access to health information and services.

I look forward to meeting all of you and encouraging all of us to share our stories and best practices to build this school health care movement!

Linda Lam
School Based Health Program Coordinator
Asian Pacific Health Care Venture, Inc.

Meet the Social Media Fellows: Lauren Mosley

Hi! I'm Lauren Mosley from HEALS, Inc. (Health Establishments at Local Schools) in Huntsville, AL, and I'm thrilled to be joining the National School-Based Health Care Convention this summer as a Social Media Fellow! Since joining HEALS, Inc. as the Development Director after graduate school in 2009, I have had the opportunity to wear multiple hats within the small non-profit organization, which has allowed me to grow our website and social media presence.

What better way to cultivate my creativity and leadership skills to build awareness for an organization that helps children and families in need?! The power of social media has sky-rocketed in the last few years, and I think it is more important now than ever to get the word out using these fun and interactive tools! As we are all working together to share the mission, vision, and vital sustainability of school-based health centers, by having a real-time connection to the Convention will mean substantial growth, feedback, and interaction with our supporters.

The more "connected" we become in creating a community of individuals and groups that understand our main goals and objectives, we will not only have fun process, but we can make lasting relationships that will keep us on the road to success! I look forward to working together to gain exponential support for our mission!

Introducing... NASBHC's Social Media Fellows (part 2 of 2)

Introducing…  Iman Shervington

Greetings fellow NASBHC convention attendees! I'm from a community-based non-profit in New Orleans called the Institute of Women & Ethnic Studies (IWES), and as a Social Media Fellow I'm here to impart the highlights, sights and sound(bites) back to you, as well as to those that couldn't make it this year. I have an MFA in Film Directing, and at IWES I am privileged to be able to mix my love of art and media with social justice, specifically to advocate for the health and well-being of the youth of the New Orleans metro area. 

Through our Media Advocates for Prevention (MAP) program as well as our Social marketing Technology Outreach Program (STOP), I work with youth aged 13-24 to promote HIV prevention and sexual health among their peers through youth-created media content (audio and film pieces). A major focus of both of these programs is new media, specifically the utilization of web-based technologies such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, & YouTube. At IWES, we also work with the Louisiana Public Health Initiative (LPHI) to promote School-Based Health Centers in New Orleans by serving as a liaison between the administration and the community to promote enrollment and utilization of clinic services. 

I look forward to meeting many new friends this weekend and sharing your stories through NASBHC's social media channels! Please look out for me throughout the convention if you have an interesting experience you would like to share.

Introducing… NASBHC Social Media Fellow Darby Baker

Hello everyone! My name is Darby Baker and I am from Camas Valley, Oregon. I am affiliated with Umpqua Community Health Clinic of Roseburg, Oregon. I am currently the receptionist for their School Based Health Center at Douglas High School in Winston Oregon. Umpqua Community Health Clinic is a Federally Qualified Health Center so I work in their other locations as well. Currently they operate two school based health centers and four not for profit health centers located throughout Douglas County as well as a dental clinic. We operate on mostly federal dollars that offset out expenses so that we are able to provide health care in a teen health center setting but are able to provide health and dental care to uninsured adults as well.

Social media started its impact for the 2010 NASBHC Convention many months ago. The ability to email, blog, text, facebook and twitter has made the ability to converse with other professionals much easier and many of the same network users will be able to use those tools while they attend the convention. The ability to stay in contact via Twitter and Facebook is a popular choice instead of phone calls and email. Bloggers have exploded onto the social scene and the ability to share technology and content has evolved dramatically. Having the ability to ask questions, participate in Webinars and having access to so much information from others in the same professional capacity is encouraging. Convention goers will easily be able to continue their communications long after the conference is over. 

The media that will profoundly impact the NASBHC Convention will not stop with the attendees. Even those that are unable to attend the convention will be able to access certain information through the internet. I always look forward to meeting new people and having the ability to continue these professional relationships via Twitter and Facebook. We can share ideas, concerns and even plan for the next conference thanks to the accessibility of social media and the profound effect it has on our world today.

Introducing... NASBHC's Social Media Fellows (Part 1 of 2)

Introducing… Robin Kirkpatrick, LCSW, MPH

I applied for the Social Media Fellowship because I am very interested in Social Networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs as relatively new sociocultural phenomenon. I am fascinated by the possibility these resources hold as tools for health education with teens, how adolescents utilize these venues to express themselves and interact, and how we as adult advocates can make use of these resources to connect with each other, as well as with young people, around topics that are engaging for all of us.

Good writing, a sense of humor, and a compelling circumstance, such as the NASBHC Convention, can combine to create a persuasive platform to inform and inspire interested parties.  My previous experience working in two school-based clinics, and now working as an advocate for school-based health care in my current job as the Associate Director of the California Adolescent Health Collaborative, (CAHC) provide me with a broad knowledge base from which to discuss the exciting events that are sure to unfold during the 2010 Convention.

The other element of social media that I really enjoy is the interaction; it’s always a surprise what people will respond to: what thoughts, impressions, and ideas are inspired by a post, comment, picture, link, or video.  I look forward to a engaging with a lively and provocative community of school health advocates during the convention.

Robin has worked in the field of adolescent health for the past thirteen years. Both in direct service with adolescents as a mental health provider, and in research, policy, and advocacy work on youth health, she has sought to find creative solutions to the myriad of challenges teens face.  Currently, she is the Associate Director for the California Adolescent Health Collaborative.  The California Adolescent Health Collaborative (CAHC), a project of the Public Health Institute, is a public-private statewide coalition with the goal of increasing understanding and support for adolescent health and wellness in California.  In this position, she is involved in direct research on a range of adolescent health issues as well as policy and advocacy efforts to improve health services and environments for teens throughout California.

Introducing…. Suzanne Keep MSN, RN

Social media is becoming an essential means of communication in both the work place and personal social networks. Incorporating social media into the 2010 National School Based Health Care Convention allows those who are not able to attend the conference feel as though they are a part of the conference through attendants’ blog posts, tweets and Facebook updates.  Creating a viral buzz about the convention will be vital to the convention’s success, and social media and networking can only enhance this viral buzz. I believe that if as many of the attendees as possible can be active in social media, the convention will have an unprecedented interest and following.

Suzanne is an assistant professor for the University of Detroit McAuley School of Nursing at the Grand Rapids, Michigan campus, and a PhD in Nursing student at Rutgers University. Suzanne teaches community health practicum where students are in the Grand Rapids Public Schools, working with school nurses.