In our last annual report, the Maine Assembly on School-Based Health Care (Maine Assembly) noted that School-based health centers (SBHCs) are here to stay! Why? Our state’s 27 school-based health centers, visited almost 15,000 times annually by Maine middle and secondary school youth, are an essential tool for staying healthy over a lifetime.

Providing accessible community and consumer-driven services, with an emphasis on quality, SBHCs are safety net providers who address our youth’s most pressing challenges—in the areas of healthy eating and exercise habits, stress management, alcohol, cigarette and drug use and reproductive health. Providing safe and easily accessible services, School-Based Health Centers (SBHCs) are there for young people.
In 2009, the Maine Assembly and its constituent SBHCs built on this identity to make significant contributions to both Maine and national health policy affecting school-age youth. Our report describes this essential work as we stand on the threshold of national health reform, which entails a powerful, sustainable role for school-based health centers.

Because in the end, it’s all about the health of our young people, our report also showcases the vibrant and diverse work of individual centers.

These two stories—of affecting policy and serving our students and their communities—are both critical to the future of the Maine Assembly, described in the last section of our report, “Moving Forward.”

Please review the full report: Maine Assembly 2009 Annual Report Final

Key findings include:
 An increase in SBHCs have been in existence for more than 5 years
 A growing number of SBHCs see members of the community beyond the schools they serve
 More SBHCs are using health information technology (HIT) to support their work.
This is important news for SBHCs. The implications for Maine are …. For more in formation please review the report: NASBHC Census Report

(Washington, DC) Tonight, the House voted 219 to 212 to pass the Senate’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (HR 3590). The Senate bill includes two important provisions for school-based health centers (SBHCs): language authorizing a federal SBHC grant program that would provide $50 million over five years, and an emergency appropriation that would provide $200 million for SBHCs over two years.
The following is a statement by Linda Jusczcak, Executive Director of the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care (NASBHC):
“Today’s historic signing marks an unprecedented victory for school-based health centers. On behalf of the 2,000 school-based health centers across the country, we congratulate President Obama, his Administration, and Congress for this great success.
“School-based health centers ensure that more than 1 million children and adolescents across the country gain access to high quality, comprehensive medical care, mental health services, preventive care, social services, and youth development. These services are provided without concern for students’ ability to pay and in a location that meets children and adolescents where they are: at school.
“Now, thanks to this legislation and the path it creates towards future reform, fewer school-based health centers will be forced to shutter their doors because of state budget cuts, and more communities that desire to open a health clinic at their school will have the critical resources to do so.
“We’re proud of the passionate and tireless efforts school-based health center staff, advocates, and students have put into building support for this historic legislation—including creating virtual tours of their clinics, writing hundreds of letters, making thousands of phone calls, and traveling to visit their Members of Congress. We look forward to supporting other health care reform-related provisions through the reconciliation process.”
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The National Assembly on School-Based Health Care (NASBHC) is the national voice for school-based health centers (SBHCs). Founded in 1995 to promote and support the SBHC model, NASBHC’s mission is to improve the health status of children and youth by advancing and advocating for school-based health care. Learn more at www.nasbhc.org.

Two Calais High Students Present Workshop at The National Assembly on School-Based Health Care (NASBHC) Annual Conference  

 Sean Cavanaugh and Jesse Clark, both long-time members of the Calais Middle/High School Blue Devil Health Center’s Teen Advocacy Group (the TAG Team), recently attended the National Assembly of School-Based Health Center’s annual convention as presenters of a workshop titled Herding Cats!: How One SBHC learned to TAG and Release Youth Advocacy Using the Net. The were assisted and accompanied by Jay Skriletz, the TAG Team advisor and Blue Devil SBHC’s Youth and Community Advocacy Co-coordinator. The convention was attended by over 700 individuals from all corners of the United States, and nearly 50 youth advocacy coordinators, school-based health center administrators and providers, and youth advocates registered for the workshop.

The presentation opened with a brief history of the TAG Team’s first five years. In the overview many projects were discussed, both those that have been big successes and those that were less successful. Time constraints are always a difficulty and one common to many youth advocacy groups. The desire to explore the web for solutions to this difficulty is what led to the discoveries the presentation shared at the conference.

Youth Advocacy is a very important service provided by the school-based health centers. It gives youth a voice in the services that affect them most closely and elicits strong commitments from youth to better their schools, health centers, and communities. Herding Cats! Focused on how various internet tools, many of them beta, or development (and usually free), versions can facilitate the work of youth advocates by encouraging “virtual” meetings and collaborations using the internet. Some of the tools were virtual classrooms like moodle.org and wiziq.com; others are the common social networking sites like facebook.com and twitter.com which, even though are not available on the schools’ web-server, are commonly used by many organizations to connect with similar groups and potential funders; video conferencing sites like skype.com and oovoo.com were also discussed as ways that youth advocates can meet with youth from other schools and also with community partners in several parts of the state without traveling.

Both on-line chatting and video-conferencing were actually used to collaborate with students at Indian Township Elementary School and the staff at the Holocaust and Human Rights Resource Center at the University of Maine in Augusta to make progress on the Telling Truth oral history project the TAG Team contributed to this past year. The virtual classrooms are in regular use as meeting places and bulletin boards that team members use to share information and ideas when their busy schedules make it difficult to meet.

The presentation concluded with the lessons the team has learned during the time spent exploring internet tools. Most importantly is that these tools are no substitute for the bonding that happens in face-to-face meetings. These tools offer support for the working relationships and commitments the Team forges during meetings and celebrations. The presentation was warmly received and both Sean and Jesse were highly regarded as public speakers.