Program Details

Practice Type:	Promising
Program Name:	Project A.S.K. (Adolescents Seeking Knowledge)
Organization:	Metro Public Health Department
Web site:	healthweb.nashville.org
Overview:	Project A.S.K. (Adolescents Seeking Knowledge) provides an innovative approach to address teen health issues in Nashville, by developing the next generation of public health leaders. Seven Metro Public Health Department (MPHD) Youth Advisory Board (YAB) students, ages 14-18, participated in the project and achieved the stated goals. Selected MPHD employees volunteered to teach basic public health skills to YAB members every other Saturday for four months. Each three-hour session consisted of interactive teaching, Q&A including opportunities to ask career-focused questions, and project work time. The YAB used this new knowledge to scientifically identify a primary health concern affecting Nashville youth, research it, and create interventions to address it. Project A.S.K. seeks to raise youth self-efficacy, improve knowledge of health issues, highlight math and science concepts tested in school, build leadership qualities, and improve the sense of community.
Year Submitted:	2004
Responsiveness and Innovation:	Many youth-focused programs follow the normative manner of interacting with youth, by concentrating on what youth lack or do wrong. These programs tend to address important issues like violence, unintended pregnancy, and other risky behaviors. Targeting youth issues with these deficit-based models has not proven overly successful. Project A.S.K., in contrast, aims to concentrate and build on the assets that youth have, following a youth development model. Through this approach, the program hopes to give youth leadership opportunities and increase their self-efficacy. At the same time, the project will benefit the larger community by having youth address a critical health issue that is affecting a targeted population. Project A.S.K. students selected body image and weight as their project topic. Body image concerns can sometimes lead to unhealthy eating habits. People with negative body image have a greater likelihood developing an eating disorder. In fact, according to a recent survey, 40-60 percent of high school girls are on diets. On the other hand, more teens are overweight now than at any time in history. One in every four of America’s youth is overweight. As reported in the 2001 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 13 percent of high school students surveyed in Nashville are overweight. As result of this alarming data, Project A.S.K. students were drawn to weight and body image as a research topic. They wanted to know which influences (i.e., society, peer groups, parental. or personal) affected body image and weight the greatest among Nashville teens.
Agency and Community Roles:	The Metro Public Health Department was the lead agency in this project. The health department has hosted the YAB as part of its agency for the past four years. YAB comprises 30, ages 14-18, from public and private high schools. Seven of the 30 YAB students were eligible to participate in Project A.S.K. Eight MPHD professionals worked with the students for four months, training them in the various areas of public health research and science. Once the research topic was identified, other community stakeholders became involved in the process. Local media were invited to partner with the Mayor's Youth Council to help create a pubic service announcement related to body image and weight. The Eating Disorders Coalition of Tennessee was invited to assist with survey intervention plans. Vanderbilt University Medical Center and their Girl Force Program helped to fund the presentation to the community and will start a letter-writing campaign in the summer. Many other community partners assisted in the program. Students identified community partners that would help them achieve their research goals and made the calls to ask them to be part of the project.
Costs and Expenditures:	Costs included food ($40/month + late night meetings = $200), catered buffet dinner for 120 key community leaders at the final student presentation to community ($2,500), and 1.0 FTE x 15 hours per week.
Implementation:	Many youth-focused programs follow the normative manner of interacting with youth, by concentrating on what youth lack or do wrong. These programs tend to address important issues like violence, unintended pregnancy, and other risky behaviors. Targeting youth issues with these deficit-based models has not proven overly successful. Project A.S.K., in contrast, aims to concentrate and build on the assets that youth have, following a youth development model. Through this approach, the program hopes to give youth leadership opportunities and increase their self-efficacy. At the same time, the project will benefit the larger community by having youth address a critical health issue that is affecting a targeted population. Project A.S.K. students selected body image and weight as their project topic. Body image concerns can sometimes lead to unhealthy eating habits. People with negative body image have a greater likelihood developing an eating disorder. In fact, according to a recent survey, 40-60 percent of high school girls are on diets. On the other hand, more teens are overweight now than at any time in history. One in every four of America’s youth is overweight. As reported in the 2001 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 13 percent of high school students surveyed in Nashville are overweight. As result of this alarming data, Project A.S.K. students were drawn to weight and body image as a research topic. They wanted to know which influences (i.e., society, peer groups, parental. or personal) affected body image and weight the greatest among Nashville teens.
Sustainability:	Currently, the Nashville Metro Public Health Department has a full-time YAB Coordinator who helps organize YAB programs. Project A.S.K. is just one of many activities hosted by the MPHD YAB. The MPHD plans to continue Project ASK; in fact, past student participants will serve as mentors or teachers for the future Project ASK groups.
Lessons Learned:	Extend the program over a one-year time frame ending prior to school finals. Four months is not enough time to accomplish the tasks at hand. Given their other commitments, such as final exams, students found it difficult to complete the project. Seven students carried a heavy workload. Recruit at least 10 students. Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. Communication between speakers week to week was vital to ensure continuity of the message. For example, the Session 1 speaker met with the Session 2 speaker to share the message that was relayed to students. The Session 2 speaker reinforced that message. It is very difficult to obtain permission to survey students. Be sure you and your agency the means and resources available before you decide to get involved in this practice. The health department has its own Institutional Review Board to ensure that the surveys created and conducted are reviewed and approved, before seeking parental approval. Students need more time to collect data.

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