In 2021, Getting to Zero Coalition was excited to relaunch the Youth Ambassador program! The first Youth Ambassador program that Getting to Zero saw was created by our 2019 Activist Academy Fellows to inform youth in the Worcester area about the Healthy Youth Act, with the goal of empowering them with the tools to advocate for themselves on behalf of this issue. This team of Fellows and Youth Ambassadors were able to host a very successful parent workshop in Worcester, featuring a panel facilitated by the youth using their own personal experiences and what they learned from our Fellow team to inform their questions. 

Getting to Zero MA sought to expand on this project and we recruited 5 youth from different areas of MA to learn about a range of public health concepts and issues, and how these issues connect to HIV advocacy. Due to the COVID 19 pandemic, this program took place primarily online. Youth Ambassadors attended webinar style training once a week to grow their knowledge on HIV advocacy and develop their organizing skills. Together, our Youth Ambassadors collaborated on a project of their choosing to showcase what they have learned. 

Our Youth Ambassadors were very dedicated to learning about the Healthy Youth Act and sexual health education access across our state. They were shocked to learn of how different the sexual health education curriculums are across the state and from school to school – even between the 5 of them! This inspired them to create a project that aims to engage our larger communities in advocacy and learning related to the Healthy Youth Act via social media. This year’s Youth Ambassadors created tiktok videos encouraging people to learn more about the Healthy Youth Act and engage with their legislators on this bill! You can find these videos on our Tik Tok account @FenwayHealth.