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

Members of the student health center outreach teams at Deering and Portland high schools hosted a breakfast for gubernatorial candidates in the State of Maine Room at City Hall and provided a tour of the health center at Portland High.

Democratic candidates Pat McGowan, Libby Mitchell, John Richardson and Steve Rowe attended the breakfast, along with Republican candidate Peter Mills and Dr. Melanie Cutler, wife of independent candidate Eliot Cutler.

Students said the health centers are a cost-effective, convenient way to provide health care to students. Services range from physical exams and dental cleanings to mental health counseling and birth control for sexually active students.

“We want more school health centers,” said Mandi Arnott, a Deering High senior.

About 94 percent of all visits to Maine’s school-based health centers last year were covered by public or private insurance. About half of all visits were made by students covered by MaineCare, a publicly funded health insurance option for low-income people.

Several students representing the health center at Lewiston High School also attended the breakfast.

To view the video please follow this link..or go to the right of this site and click onto the video under Youth Advocacy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHhx_UZECRA

Maranacook Students Will Unveil Video Asking Lawmakers to Help Prevent Youth Smoking

Members of the Maranacook Student Health Center Advisory Committee want lawmakers to take action on youth smoking, starting by increasing Maine’s tobacco taxes right away.

On Tuesday, March 23rd, students from the Committee will travel to the State House to unveil their new video calling on lawmakers to raise the tax on cigarettes in order to help prevent youth smoking, and equalize the tax on other tobacco products to keep kids from finding cheaper alternatives, like “little cigars” and chewing tobacco.

Parents and school administrators will also be in attendance. They will express their concern for Maine’s rising smoking rates and the Legislature’s lack of action in raising the price of tobacco products, despite the proven link between higher prices and reduced youth smoking.

WHAT: Press Conference Calling for a Tobacco Tax Increase

WHEN: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 10:30am

WHERE: Taxation Committee Room #127, State House, Augusta

WHO: Chuck Hays, Maranacook High School student
Justin Greeley, Maranacook High School student
Emily Allen, Maranacook High School student
Dr. John Barnes, Maranacook parent and Readfield physician
Rich Abramson, Superintendent of Maranacook Area Schools

CONTACT: Carol Kelly (207) 210-0789

Student advisors this year include Justin Greeley, Chuck Hays, Tyler Whitman, Kate Laliberte, Ben Johnson, Emily Allen, Jackson Pineau, Ben Barnes, Adrienne Nel, Isabel Smith and Emma Olson. All 11 students are able to go – Cindy Flye and Kini Tinkham, along with Randy Schwartz, Kini’s husband, will join the students.

On the morning of March 18th we will visit the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care – staff will review the current status of health care reform and and will share additional talking points for us to use at our visits with Senator Snowe and Collins and Representatives Michaud and Pingree. The National Assembly’s Communication Director is hoping to arrange having NPR follow us for the day – will keep you posted

On Thursday afternoon we will be touring the Capitol and have meetings scheduled with Senators Collins and Senator Snowe as well as a health policy staff member of Senator Snowe.

On Friday, 3/19/10, we have an early morning White House tour followed by scheduled meetings with both Rep Pingree and Rep Michaud.

Friday evening we will have a tour of the monuments and Saturday morning will visit the Holocaust Museum.

We continue to do fundraising for our trip – in addition to the $4500 set aside in the Kellogg Foundation Grant, the students have needed to raise another $4000. We have done really well selling note cards of the health center wall mural – if anyone is interested in buying a box for $10 just let us know. Parents, community members, and local organizations have also donated funds!!

We are very excited and will look forward to sharing our adventures with you upon our return!

Cindy T. Flye
Health Center Coordinator

You can also explore the “Find Events & Trainings” section of our website to discover more ways to find skillbuilding opportunities as well as promote your events & trainings.

News Flash: In light of the economic climate and ongoing budget cuts, MYAN is waiving the fees for our skillbuilding trainings (Partnering for Change, Advocacy in Action & Everyone At the Table). When registering for one of those trainings, use the promotional code “freetraining” when you check out and 100% of the cost will be waived.

http://www.myan.org/

Cindy Dolben RN
Noble Health Center
388 Somersworth Rd
North Berwick, Maine 03906
Phone 207-676-2175
Fax 207-676-2204
cdolben@sad60.k12.me.us

“You cannot educate a child who is not healthy, and you cannot be healthy if you are not educated.”

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.

Portland Public School

At the invitation of WKKF, Phyl Rubinstein and Odera Bonney, a student from Portland High traveled to New Mexico on 12/10/08 to be part of a panel presentation along with SBHC staff from New Mexico at the annual Rural Minority Health Care Conference in Albuquerque, NM.  The topic was student engagement and how SBHCs work with multicultural students.  30 participants