PAHO’s Healthy Municipality movement is increasingly becoming a key strategy for promoting supportive environments and improving the quality of life in Latin America and the Caribbean. Healthy Municipalities are locally driven interventions that respond directly to community needs, through their participation, leadership and management. Results throughout the region have demonstrated that this strategy strengthens social participation and builds capacity at the local level. Few of these movements, however, have addressed youth concerns from a youth perspective. Horquitas in Cienfuegos, Cuba, is one of the pioneering experiences in promoting youth participation within this context. This municipality has become a model in youth participation in the Healthy Municipality Movement by contributing to improved adolescent health and development. This innovation is youth driven and managed by youth-- youth conducted the needs assessment, identified their own priorities, determined the most effective mix of strategies to address their concerns and developed indicators for evaluation. Few programs provide youth with the responsibility of implementing, managing and evaluating their own initiatives. This presentation will focus on the value of youth participation as a strategy in the Healthy Municipality experiences and present preliminary findings from their evaluation.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participants will be able to (1) Recognize the basic elements of the Healthy Municipality Youth Movement in Horquitas, Cienfuegos, Cuba; (2) Articulate the importance of youth participatory approaches as a strategy for promoting youth health and development; and (3) Discuss the results of evaluations and positive indicators of youth development.
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.