Youth Engagement Participation Program | Cohort Two

The Youth Engagement Participation Program is a project of the Vaccinate All 58 campaign of the California Department of Public Health, focusing on educating youth and centering their voices as leaders on safe practices to prevent COVID-19 infections and the importance of COVID-19 vaccinations based on the latest guidance.

The California State Alliance of YMCAs worked with three YMCAs from October 2022 to April 2023 to lift the voices of youth in educating communities about safe practices to prevent COVID-19. The Anaheim Family YMCA, Channel Islands YMCA, and YMCA of San Joaquin County utilized interactive formats to engage with their community members. Collectively, they:

• Taught 10,873 youth about COVID-19 and how to stay safe
• Reached 30,401 members through informational displays at local YMCAs
• Hosted 20 events, that brought in over 18,000 attendees
• Collaborated with the community and attended 18 community events that brought over 10,000 touchpoints with individuals

Interacting face-to-face with the community, in settings in which they were comfortable, led to the great success this grant accomplished. By engaging the community in their familiar surroundings, it created a safe environment that encouraged an open exchange of questions.

In seeing the success throughout this project, the Alliance recognized the trust each YMCA had within their local communities and found value in the strength of using our unified voice to make a collective impact throughout the communities we serve.