Lunch Presentations

[Click for the Symposium Program Guide in PDF]

• "Healthy Me, Healthy Lawrence"
  Led by Mary Guerrero, Teacher and Member, LHC Board of Directors

  Lawrence middle school students (The Rising Voices of Bread Loaf) express their views on public health through writing, art and other forms of expression.

   

• “The Lawrence Mayor’s Health Task Force: Promoting Health Equity”
  Presenter(s): Vilma Martínez-Domínguez, Director, Lawrence Community Development Department; Elecia Miller, Project Officer, Lawrence Mayor’s Health Task Force; Marquis Victor, Director, Elevated Thought and Lawrence Youth Council

   

  The Lawrence Mayor’s Health Task Force (MHTF) is “a multi-sector coalition that promotes health equity for all, through advocacy, education, capacity-building, and networking.” Since 2002, the broad based collaborative has engaged in a number of activities within Lawrence and surrounding communities to improve community health. These include: advising the Mayor of Lawrence’s Office on public health policy; convening working groups to address health challenges; and, building relationships amongst MHTF membership to increase collaborations.

  In 2010, the MA Department of Public Health gave the MHTF the responsibility of expanding its reach beyond Lawrence to Methuen, Andover, North Andover and Middleton, through the provision of technical assistance and support, collaborative work, and inclusion in all MHTF led community health initiatives. This strong grassroots coalition has proven effective in mobilizing community partners and residents alike to address health inequities through awareness-raising, facilitation of health care access, leadership development, capacity-building, and policy, systems, and/or environmental changes. This is done primarily through working groups that expand from behavioral health, and healthy active living, and research community-based partnerships, to adolescent health and youth leadership, through a partnership with the Mass. Alliance on Teen Pregnancy, and the Lawrence Youth Council. Most recently, the MHTF launched a homelessness initiatives working group to collectively address the issue of chronic homelessness. The MHTF’s strategic plan includes the incorporation of the MHTF as its own division within the Office of Planning & Development.

  The Lawrence Mayor’s Health Task Force Office has contracted with Lawrence-based non-profit Elevated Thought (ET) to, across the last two years, develop the Lawrence Youth Council (LYC). The LYC is a dedicated, thoughtful, creative group of Lawrence young people whose goal is to represent youth in the city, create opportunities to give youth a voice, advocate for issues important to youth, and organize and develop youth-related projects, programs, events and activities. For the past two years, they have joined ET efforts to redesign public schooling in their city

  ET's Creative. Community. Change. (C3) program has two ongoing focuses: ‘What is Education?’ a campaign in which our youth combine art, research, public outreach, and organizing to bring forth a renewed vision of education in Lawrence, and; ‘Nature of Home’ in which youth are redefining the negative perception of their city, both external and internal, through various art mediums and community engagement. Both programs are youth-driven, in conception and progression.

  The ‘What is Education’? Campaign, will not only contribute to understandings of youth power and action; their value resides as well in documenting systematic mechanisms for strengthening organizations focused on young people. In centering on youth who are persistently experiencing the devastating consequences of inequality, ET youth go to the heart of contemporary educational challenges. It does so by extending the scope of where academic preparation can happen – through learning experiences that may be connected to classrooms but thrive well beyond them and with creativity, student-centered learning, and organizing as the foundation. Moreover, it operates from a broader definition of possibility, nurturing the voices, visions, and agency of youth from Lawrence.