Health Assessment tool: Opportunities Industrialization Center West.

Community served: African-American, Latino, and Pacific-Islander young people ages 14-24

Each year, several hundred young people between the ages of 14-24 participate in youth programs at Opportunities Industrialization Center West (OICW), which is located on the border of Menlo Park and East Palo Alto, California, roughly halfway between San Francisco and San Jose, in the heart of Silicon Valley. Youth involved in this program tend to come from low-income neighborhoods with higher rates of high school dropouts, teen pregnancy, STDs, substance use, violence, and less access to health services than other neighborhoods. They are from predominantly African-American, Latino, and Pacific-Islander communities.

The mission of OICW's Youth Programs is to empower young people to lead successful and healthy lifestyles through education, job skills training, career exploration, placement, and youth development. OICW uses an innovative approach to adolescent pregnancy prevention by using targeted health education strategies in a youth development setting. Its programs for young people include employment opportunities, vocational training, academic assistance, basic skills training, leadership skills development, gender-specific support groups, individual health assessments, clinic referrals, and health workshops. While health education workshops have been used regularly as a pregnancy prevention strategy, in the spring of 2002 OICW's health educator saw the need to have more time with each individual participant and developed a Health Assessment tool to get more specific information about participants' overall health and behaviors in a one-on-one setting.

These meetings give participants the opportunity to ask more specific questions and get more detailed answers to questions they might not be comfortable asking in a larger classroom. The meetings have the added benefit of helping youth forge stronger connections with local clinics and resources in the community. Health Assessment meetings usually last at least 30 minutes but do vary and follow-up sessions are planned as needed.

The Health Assessment itself resembles a checklist and is composed of approximately 15 short-answer questions. These questions start out with non-threatening and factual items, such as name, age, high school, and grade level. General questions about the participant's background, family life, and future plans after high school follow. Personal questions come next, including topics about frequency of alcohol consumption, drug use, and sexual behavior. The Health Educator makes sure to cover all of the points on the questionnaire, prefacing the conversation by letting them know it is a completely confidential, non-judgmental, safe place, while trying to build genuine rapport with the participants. The primary objective is to fill in the gaps that are missing for the youth and connect them to the appropriate resources for maintaining sexual health and preventing pregnancy. As other issues inevitably come to the surface in these conversations, the Health Educator continues to connect youth to the appropriate resources for those needs.

Contact information: Jennifer Kockelman, Health Educator, Opportunities Industrialization Center West (OICW), 1200 O'Brien Drive, Menlo Park, CA 94025, phone: [phone]; e-mail: [e-mail] or Stephen Baiter, Director of Youth Programs at OICW, phone: [phone], e-mail: [e-mail].