Youth Advocacy as a Tool for Environmental and Policy Changes That Support Physical Activity and Nutrition: An Evaluation Study in San Diego County

Abstract

BackgroundAs evidence grows about the benefits of policy and environmental changes to support active living and healthy eating, effective tools for implementing change must be developed. Youth advocacy, a successful strategy in the field of tobacco control, should be evaluated for its potential in the field of obesity prevention.Community ContextSan Diego State University collaborated with the San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative to evaluate Youth Engagement and Action for Health! (YEAH!), a youth advocacy project to engage youth and adult mentors in advocating for neighborhood improvements in physical activity and healthy eating opportunities. Study objectives included documenting group process and success of groups in engaging in community advocacy with decision makers.MethodsIn 2011 and 2012, YEAH! group leaders were recruited from the San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative’s half-day train-the-trainer seminars for adult leaders. Evaluators collected baseline and postproject survey data from youth participants and adult group leaders and interviewed decision makers.OutcomesOf the 21 groups formed, 20 completed the evaluation, conducted community assessments, and advocated with decision makers. Various types of decision makers were engaged, including school principals, food service personnel, city council members, and parks and recreation officials. Eleven groups reported change(s) implemented as a result of their advocacy, 4 groups reported changes pending, and 5 groups reported no change as a result of their efforts.InterpretationEven a brief training session, paired with a practical manual, technical assistance, and commitment of adult leaders and youth may successfully engage decision makers and, ultimately, bring about change.

A pilot study evaluating the effects of a youth advocacy program on youth readiness to advocate for environment and policy changes for obesity prevention

“…It was designed to engage youth and adult group leaders in community advocacy for school and neighborhood improvement projects that could impact nutrition and physical activity environments (http://ourcommunityourkids.org/domainscommittees/community/youth-engagement-actionfor-health.aspx). Table 1 summarizes key intervention components; see [3] for a detailed description of the YEAH! training and advocacy procedures.…”

“…Increasing participation in citizen advocacy through training programs is a promising approach for advancing policy change consistent with obesity prevention, but such interventions have not been consistently evaluated [3][4][5]. Advocacy refers to the process of increasing support for, recommending, and arguing to promote a cause or policy [6][7][8].…”

“…1) [3,4]. Individual level dimensions of the model included self-efficacy [11], self-esteem [12], empowerment [13,14], proxy efficacy [10,15], perceptions, behavior change skills, and barriers, all of which influence nutrition, physical activity, and advocacy behaviors [11,16].…”

“…In the school environment, physical education classes, activity supervision, recreation facilities, school lunch quality, and vending machines have been targeted for changes to improve nutrition and physical activity outcomes [22,23]. For instance, successful youth advocacy projects from this study's policy evaluation led to adding a salad bar at a high school, having additional night lighting installed at a community center to increase pedestrian safety, and creating a female-only swim time at a YMCA [3].…”

“…(YEAH!) youth obesity prevention advocacy program, as well as correlates of the proximal outcome of advocacy readiness, based on a conceptual model [3,4] and using previously evaluated measures [5]. The first goal was to assess youth changes, before and after completing advocacy projects, on measures of hypothesized psychosocial influences, intervention processes, and proximal outcomes of advocacy.…”