A couple of months ago, Zeenia Junkeer, Executive Director of the Oregon Health Equity Alliance, highlighted that “data being collected across the state about COVID-19 positive cases, hospitalizations and deaths began to show trends that mirrored health inequities that long preceded Coronavirus: disproportionately impacting Black, Latinx, Pacific Islander, and Native communities.” Adding to that, while we consider our youth-focused work, it’s also important to remember that there are intersectional identities within each community.

For example, this pre-pandemic report by the Human Rights Campaign discusses the intersectional identities of Latinx LGBTQ+ youth, and considers how they experience racism, homophobia, gender discrimination, and ageism. As we continue to think about how we make equity a priority, we must consider the impacts of discrimination based on race, gender and sexuality, income, and physical status all together rather than lumping people into one population or another thinking we are addressing everyone’s concerns. Our systems and services will be better for it.

In this month's newsletter, two OSBHA Student Health Advocates share about the impact COVID-19 has had on their lives. Thank you to Azucena and E for sharing your experiences and photos with us.

Azucena: Covid-19 has impacted me in many ways that include my emotional and physical health. To avoid social gatherings and going out in general, I’ve been staying at home. Living in a small apartment and not having a backyard discouraged me from any exercise. Occasionally I go out for a walk but the cold weather makes me want to go inside ASAP. I started college this fall and transitioning to living in the dorms without my parents sending me off was hard. On-campus, I did not leave my dorm unless to attend class, go to the library, go grocery shopping, or picking up takeout food from the cafeteria. This routine made me afraid of the future because I would question “Is this what college is like? Will this be my college experience for the next four years?”. Thankfully, I had resources and people to talk to who would remind me that my experience was not normal. I was attending my first year of college during a pandemic, and at the time, the wildfires as well.

Azucena: Tips I would give to my past self about virtual schooling is to advocate for yourself. If you can’t concentrate in school because you live in a household with other children who are loud, let your teacher know and ask how they can accommodate your needs. If you have a laptop that is too slow or have no laptop at all, call your school and ask if you can rent one. If you are feeling tired and unmotivated about the school, allow yourself to feel that way because it is perfectly normal. Take a break, or ask for an extension (however, hold yourself accountable to these deadlines). If turning on your camera makes you uncomfortable or interrupts the connection, let your teacher know. Don’t leave your needs unaddressed, this is your education, an education that you have the right to, make the most of this education because you will not always be a middle school, high school, or college student. 

E: It’s been a bit hard some days to have the motivation to get things done because I had so many plans for this year that were all postponed, and it still hurts to think about the fact that I have to wait to be able to do them, but overall I’ve managed to stay at least at a stable level emotionally. It is also really weird to not be able to go to my friends houses when I do need someone to talk to or just be around compared to before quarantine and that’s also been taking quite a big toll on my emotional health when those moments come up. I’ve been slowly finding what ways help me to cope and which don’t throughout quarantine though so I’m figuring out how to keep myself stable, however challenging that may be at times.

E: For a while I lost interest in past hobbies I had, however some of them have come back during quarantine such as dancing in my free time and just for the fun of it, as well as reading and messing around with the vast majority of different musical instruments in my house. I’ve started trying to learn another language by myself as well, which has been a fun thing to pick up, although it can also be hard at points without a teacher/tutor’s help when I’m more confused on certain parts, it's still a fun extra thing to do when I’m bored nevertheless.

E: My mum, my sister and I have gotten really tired of each other at times but we’ve also become closer during quarantine because we’re with each other 24/7, which has been both a good and kind of weird feeling, especially with my sister because we have a fairly big age gap. Furthermore, it has been super hard not being able to see my dad and his side of the family because they all live in Nebraska. I normally go back every 6-8 months and at this point it's been over a year since the last time I saw any of them in person, which is super odd for me since I’m used to being with them for 2-4 weeks throughout the year. I’ve managed to stay in okay contact with my dad, but it could be better, and I have very broken contact with the rest of the family which is normal during the year when I’m not around them, however it feels weird since I haven’t seen them in so long. Overall, it has affected my family and I both positively and negatively, but nothing too bad or overbearing has come from it.

OSBHA's next School Health Advocacy Day is scheduled for Tuesday, February 23rd, 2021.

As you might expect, Advocacy Day is going to look a little different this year! This year we will be holding this event virtually.

School Health Advocacy Day is the only youth-driven advocacy event that supports school-based health services in Oregon. We are excited for this event to continue to provide an opportunity for youth from across Oregon to come together, meet their legislators, and advocate for the importance of school-based health services in their communities, while staying safely in their homes or schools.

More details will be released as we continue our planning process. We hope you will join us virtually on February 23rd between 9:30 am - 3:30 pm! Times may shift a bit as parts of the program come together. More details to follow. Save the date and please contact OSBHA staff Jessica Chambers at Jessica@osbha.org with any questions.

Create Safer Spaces for LGBTQ Youth Toolkit, Advocates for Youth

"This Toolkit highlights challenges faced by LGBTQ youth, offers insight on how they thrive, and enhances awareness about existing disparities in order to provide more comprehensive, competent, evidence-based care and support to this community." Keep reading.

Celebrating Transgender Awareness Week, Teaching Tolerance

Transgender Awareness Week was November 13-19. "Use these resources to advocate for trans students and fellow educators, whether you’re teaching in person or remotely." Keep reading.

Native Youth Are Medicine: The State of Native Youth Report 2020, Center for Native American Youth

"Mainstream media and research publications portray Native people as the demographic group with some of the worst health outcomes, including diabetes suicide ideation and more. However, these publications fail to provide the complete story. To better portray the realistic narrative of health disparities is to expose the link between settler colonial violence and poor health outcomes for Native people combined with the lack of economic access and inadequate Health & Wellness Native youth across the country are changing the narrative around Native health outcomes. 37 resources to fully realize tribal sovereignty, many Native communities continue to suffer from high rates of preventable diseases. To address this, Native youth are leading the movement to uplift restore ownership over health and wellness, tribal sovereignty and, ultimately, work towards solutions for these health challenges to better their communities. Native youth across the country are changing the narrative around Native health outcomes from reports of hopelessness and despair to those of resilience, growth, and love for self and community." Keep reading.