BPS Health and Wellness Youth Advisory Board Member hosts Read Aloud Event

Boston Latin School 10th Grader Writes Children's Book as part of Youth Advisory Board Project

The BPS Office of Health and Wellness is deeply committed to helping students learn how to make healthy decisions. This includes empowering students to take action to help other students learn more about the importance of making healthy decisions.

Empowering Teens Through Health (ETTH) Youth Advisory Board (YAB)

The Office of Health and Wellness established the Empowering Teens Through Health Youth Advisory Board during the 2020-2021 school year as a way to increase student voice in health programming across BPS. The group meets weekly in person and the meetings before the winter recess focused on community building and building health knowledge and skills.

Public Health;
Health Equity;
Health Communication;
Health Advocacy; and
Health Data.

After the winter recess, YAB students identify a health initiative they would like to lead and work in small groups for their projects. YAB hosts a pitch panel where students pitch their ideas in January and YAB groups engage with internal and external partners to get feedback on their projects throughout the second part of the year. YAB members also have opportunities to hear presentations from departments and give feedback on the programming. Last year, YAB had the opportunity to present their work to the District Wellness Council.

This year's YAB project focus on the following topics:

Bike promotion and safety education;
Health Education for All Learners;
Mental Health promotion - instagram and podcast; and
Reducing food waste in schools.

Hennigan Read-Aloud with Jilliane Liranzo

Jilliane's project last year was to write a children's book focused on disability advocacy. She was passionate about bringing disability representation to storybooks to create a sense of belonging for people with disabilities.

Following the District Wellness Council YAB presentation in May 2024, Hennigan K-8 School Principal Tanya Woodard expressed interest in piloting Jilliane's book at her school.

Jilliane was excited to share her story with young students in BPS and we are hoping to organize another read aloud and identify ways to bring the book to all elementary schools in the district. She led a reading of the book she created, "We Are All Human,” a children’s book about understanding and accepting people with disabilities.

A two-year board member of the Empowering Teens Through Health Youth Advisory Board, Jilliane wrote her book last year and plans to host other read-alouds throughout the BPS community!

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Empowering Teens Through Health

Empowering Teens Through Health (ETTH) is a CDC Division of Adolescent School and Health (DASH) funded program looking to improve adolescent health through the implementation of sexual health education, promoting access to key sexual health services, and fostering safe and supportive environments for all students. In collaboration with multiple BPS departments, including Health Services and the Office of Equity, The Office of Health and Wellness is providing intensive support to 18 participating BPS schools.

Initiatives supported through the ETTH program include:

Sexual health education curriculum professional development for teachers of all grades
Technical assistance and instructional coaching for those teaching sexual health education
The Implementation of Condom Accessibility Teams (CAT) in all BPS high schools
Y2Connect Boston, a web-based sexual health resource guide for youth
Technical assistance and instructional coaching for Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) advisors
Receive support for your school’s Wellness Council

ETTH PRIORITY SCHOOLS

Boston Collaborative High School
Boston Community Leadership Academy
Boston Green Academy
Boston International Newcomer High School
Boston Latin Academy
Boston Latin School
Brighton High School
Charlestown High School
Dearborn STEM 6-12 Early College Academy
Excel High School
Henderson K-12 Inclusion School Upper
Josiah Quincy Upper School
Madison Park High School
Margarita Muniz Academy
Muriel S. Snowden International School at Copley
TechBoston Academy 6-12
William McKinley Preparatory High School
William McKinley South End Academy

Contact Us

Ariel Farr

ETTH Grant Coordinator

afarr@bostonpublicschools.org