Field Placement: Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services, Youth Health Education Division
Location: Long Beach, CA
Preceptor: Diane Brown, MPH
Student Name: Mishanda Freeman
Year: 2004

The Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services, Youth Health Education Division offers a variety of education and prevention programs designed to reduce the rates of unintended pregnancy, HIV infection, and other sexually transmitted diseases among Long Beach youth. There are six programs currently run out of the division that are tailored to various populations, including youth of color, gay and lesbian youth, etc.

I worked on several projects during my internship at LBDHHS. I conducted several trainings for the PATHS Program (Peer Advocates Teaching Healthier Solutions). The PATHS program employs Long Beach high school youth to conduct outreach and give presentations to the Long Beach community and their peers. The peer advocates had to go through a rigorous training and part of my job was to conduct four trainings. I presented PowerPoint presentations on the male/female anatomy, condoms (types, how to use, advantages/disadvantages), and dating violence. The trainings lasted one hour or more and I had to conduct research on the various topics using Internet searches and other resources. I also had to come up with activities such as games, discussion questions, etc in order to make the trainings fun and entertaining as well as educational. I also developed a training evaluation questionnaire so that the peer advocates could give me feedback on whether my trainings were effective and well presented. In addition, I was given the opportunity to revise a pre-post test that is given to all youth who visit the Youth Drop-In Center in Downtown Long Beach.

One of my other assignments was to assist in developing the Peer Counseling program that the division was starting. The Youth Leaders (college aged staff) would act as peer counselors to youth who visit the Youth Drop-In Center. I was in charge of developing a resource manual of different youth serving agencies in Long Beach. I also developed several forms for the program. I developed a client intake form, referral form, monthly report form, a client intake form, a peer-counseling protocols sheet, a session log, and a 28-question risk assessment questionnaire. The risk-assessment questionnaire was pilot tested using the youth leaders and I was instrumental in having a say in how the program would run.

I thoroughly enjoyed my internship experience with the Long Beach Department of Health. I have gained skills that are pertinent to becoming a public health professional. The staff that I worked with was friendly and easy to get along with. My preceptor was great and always made sure that my needs were met.

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