Teen Citizen Solutions, a project led by Students Speak Out, an ongoing initiative of the Citizens League and supported by the Bush Foundation with InCommons, seeks teens ages 13-19 to serve as its lead teen panelists in a 10-week online dialogue.
They are looking for a diverse group of teens who have an opinion (or want to develop one!) about health and health care in Minnesota. As lead panelists, you will respond to a variety of “question-askers” who are working to improve health and health care and want to learn from you.
The results of the online work will guide the ultimate policy proposals of the Minnesota Health Care Reform Task Force, which is charged with reviewing the state’s health care system as a whole and tackling issues such as how to hold down costs and deliver quality care.
Lead panelists will receive $150 for thoughtfully participating and meeting responsibilities.
They want to know your thoughts on questions like:
• What do teens understand about what it means to be healthy? How do they define “health?”
• How do teens learn about health? Do they find these means effective? Do they have advice for teaching future teens?
• What motivates (and does not motivate) teens to make healthy choices?
• Do teens make a distinction between their health care needs now and their health care needs later in life?
• Do teens make connections between their healthy choices, their use of health care, and the cost of health care?
Lead teen panelist responsibilities include: joining and creating a profile on CitiZing.org (a social network), responding to weekly questions online and on time; participating in the dialogue with other participants as it develops throughout each week; encouraging other students to participate throughout the course of the 10-week project using your personal connections through your school, activities, and Facebook; sharing your posts on Facebook and other social networking spaces (if applicable); commenting thoughtfully on the final report; and (depending on your location) possibly attending an in-person meeting, as requested.
Other opportunities might include communicating project findings to adults making decisions about Minnesota health care. We’ll select five-to-seven lead panelists; but all are welcome to join and participate throughout the project. Your participation is valued and important whether or not you are a lead panelist. If you are not selected this time, your participation in this project might lead to your selection in future projects.
Apply today by following these four steps:
1. Please email health@studentsspeakout.org with the following information:
-Name
-Sex/gender
-Age
-Year in school
-Complete address, phone number, and email address
– Current and previous schools attended and what kind of school it is (district, magnet, charter, alternative, distance/online, home, etc.)
– Outside-of-school activities (job, extracurricular)
-Briefly, why would you be an asset to this discussion about teen health and the future of health care in Minnesota?
2. Create an account on CitiZing at www.citizing.org. Then join the Teen Citizen Solutions project at http://health.studentsspeakout.org.
3. Once you have joined the project, click on the “What You Can Do Now” tab and introduce yourself to the community! (http://health.studentsspeakout.org/activities/introduce-yourself)
4. Then, also found under the “What You Can Do Now” tab, scroll down to the “Weekly Discussion: Share your insights and experiences” link (http://health.studentsspeakout.org/activities/weekly-discussion-share-your-insights-and-experiences).
Here, we ask that you please post at least a 150-250 word response to the following:
How do you define “health”? What does it mean to be healthy? Are Minnesota teens healthy, by your definition?
Questions? Contact Katie Malkemus at 949-275-2714 or health@studentsspeakout.org, or visit http://health.studentsspeakout.org.
This information was provided by Teen Citizen Solutions.
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