RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: The aim of the study was to have youth participate in the design and implementation of a research project set within a child rights framework to better understand high schoolers' perceptions of safety in their school and community. RESULTS: Between June 2020 and March 2021, a team of East Harlem, New York high school students, participated as co-researchers to modify the United Nations Children's Fund Child Friendly Cities Initiative Survey to suit their needs. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the final survey was conducted through an online remote classes system during advisory school classes, accompanied by brief focused group discussions. The novel process of conducting an interactive qualitative and quantitative virtual survey during a pandemic via youth participatory action research is outlined in this paper. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that youth participatory action research can be utilized as part of a child rights framework approach to assess the views of youth regarding community safety and violence prevention.
RESUMEN
Kids Get Care is a public health-based program in the Seattle area designed to ensure that low-income children, regardless of insurance status, receive early integrated preventive medical, dental, and developmental health services through attachment to medical and dental homes (the usual sources of medical or dental care). The oral health component of the program focuses on cross-training medical and dental providers, providing partner medical clinics with a case manager, and educating staff in nearby community-based organizations about how to identify incipient dental disease and possible early childhood developmental delays. The program identifies a local, well-respected dentist to champion the delivery of oral health screening within a medical clinic and to provide oral health training to medical clinic staff. The program works with community agencies to educate families on the importance of healthy baby teeth, routine dental care beginning at age one, and general prevention. In its first year, the program trained 355 community staff and 184 primary care providers on how to conduct an oral health assessment. These staff and providers screened more than 5,500 children for oral health problems. One medical clinic more than doubled the number of fluoride varnishes it provided, increasing from 80 to 167 during a nine-month pilot phase. Other outcome studies are in progress.