The NHC member will play a critical role in expanding the services that JASMYN and its current staff can offer to address the health challenges and disparities of LGBT youth. They will play a critical role in supporting homeless and unstably housed youth, youth experiencing substance use, youth at high risk for HIV and youth living with HIV. The NHC member will assist with the ACCESS Program as well as provide Health Education:
JASMYN’s ACCESS Program (Accessing Client-Centered Essential Support Services)
- The member will assist with the staffing of JASMYN’s ACCESS program that provides crisis intervention, health screenings, risk behavior assessments, HIV testing and counseling safety planning and enrollment into JASMYN’s intensive case management services for youth experiencing homelessness, substance use, legal and mental health issues. The member will work one on one providing direct services to JASMYN youth during ACCESS. They will work with supervisors to create outcome measures for ACCESS that will help streamline internal enrollments into case management, create a community resource guide to improve awareness of local resources available in the community and This aspect will focus on developing working relationships with youth accessing JASMYN and providing individual support through health assessments, membership enrollments, risk screening and resource linkage.
Health Education
- JASMYN’s youth center is open most weekday afternoons for LGBTQ youth and their friends to find support and positive youth development activities. The member will create capacity for expanded health education in the youth center through the development and implementation of workshops in topics such as healthy eating and fitness, smoking cessation, healthy body image, gender and sexual identity, substance use and abuse topics, healthy relationships, and sexual health. While some of these sessions will be formally scheduled, it is anticipated that many of these short educational sessions using conversations and online tools will be presented in “teachable moments”, when the topics are most relevant to the immediate needs and questions that arise in the friendly conversation of the youth center. This aspect of the position will focus on empowering youth to make smart choices about their health and lead healthier lives.
