Youth Ambassadors Put Unique Spin on Health Outreach

“I saw how personal public health can be”

What chance do little digital red hearts have against a deadly, rapidly-spreading virus? As it turns out, quite a good chance.

At the height of the pandemic, with misinformation clouding every corner of the internet, health officials warned against turning to social media for COVID information. For young people suddenly pulled from school and isolated from their peers, the advice missed the mark. “Social media was one of the only ways we could stay in contact with each other in the early stages of the pandemic,” says Youth-Young Adult Ambassador Jasmine Turner of Rodeo. “That’s all we had and all we turned to.”

Contra Costa Health disseminated critical, scientificallybased information but struggled to effectively communicate to the county’s youth. This segment of the population wasn’t reading Contra Costa Health’s media alerts or checking the COVID data dashboards on the website; they were scrolling through Instagram and watching TikTok videos. It became clear that no one could better reach this audience than a member of that very audience.

And so Contra Costa Health’s Youth-Young Adult Ambassador Program was born. Equipped with vetted COVID information, 15- to 21-year-old ambassadors took to their social media feeds and launched a grassroots campaign to educate their peers. The familiar hashtag #cococrushincovid encompassed all matters of positive and educational posts. Critical public health messages were communicated from their personal profiles, reaching their high school classmates, sports teammates and childhood friends.

Never pedantic or paternal, the ambassadors became reliable and approachable resources in the community. In the three years since the program’s inception, over 60 ambassadors have stepped up to share essential health information.

As the pandemic evolved, so did the program. Messages extended to address MPox, food insecurity, racial injustice, heart disease, LGBTQ discrimination, the tobacco epidemic and more. Ambassadors started moving their advocacy offline, hosting art therapy activities, Black history events and holiday cookie socials for mental health. Concord native Harmony Castiglione remembers a carnival-themed vaccine clinic as a program highlight. The food trucks, fair games and gift card giveaways reflected the upbeat tone and positive energy that her social media posts had brought to her more than 20,000 followers earlier in the pandemic.

“I saw how personal public health can be,” says Jasmine. “It always seemed desensitized to me, kind of robotic. But this public health program was about figuring out who you are as a person, who you are as a community and meeting you where you’re at.”

Jasmine isn’t alone in this understanding. Many YouthYoung Adult Ambassadors have gone on to pursue health careers, bringing with them this commitment to centering community voices in health initiatives. These young leaders have shown their peers the variety of ways that Contra Costa Health can serve them and their families, and have likewise shown Contra Costa Health the vitality that Contra Costa County youth offer.