Healthy Youth/Healthy Regions: Informing Action for the Nine County Capital Region and Its Youth
Author: London, Jonathan
Date: 2011-07-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Evidence,Physical Environment,Immigration,Young Adults,Counties,Well Being,Geographic Regions,Physical Health,Mental Health,Employment,Civics,Local Issues,Youth,Job Skills,Geography,Socioeconomic Status,Race,Ethnicity,Immigrants,Health Promotion,Resource Allocation,At Risk Persons,Dropouts,High Schools,Educational Attainment,Higher Education

Will the Sacramento Capital Region prosper, thrive and ultimately grow into its full potential in coming years? To answer this question, the authors have to look carefully at the well-being of young people who now inhabit the Capital Region's nine counties. As go today's young people--tomorrow's workers, parents, neighbors and leaders--so goes the region. The interconnected prospects for the youth and the region have been examined by Healthy Youth/Healthy Regions (HY/HR), a two-year, multimethod study commissioned by Sierra Health Foundation with additional funding from The California Endowment and conducted by the UC Davis Center for Regional Change. The study reflects evidence that many different factors determine the youth's and the region's health and well-being, while focusing on five major, interrelated contributors: 1) education, 2) physical and mental health, 3) employment, 4) civic engagement, and 5) the built environment--the structures and surroundings created and modified by people. The authors explored the relationship between positive outcomes and regional dynamics, drawing on data from secondary sources and youth surveys, interviews with institutional leaders, young adults who left or considered leaving high school without graduating and their adult allies, and youth generated media documenting local conditions. This report synthesizes the research findings. Detailed HY/HR Working Papers, as well as maps and data on specific subjects addressed in this report, can be found at http://regionalchange.ucdavis. edu/projects/Healthy-Youth-Healthy-Regions. The overall findings of HY/HR can be briefly summarized by four key points: (1) The Capital Region cannot succeed unless its youth are successful in terms of health, education, job readiness and their preparation for the demands of family and civic life; (2) Today significant structural challenges undermine youth's progress in all these areas. Underscoring these challenges are disparities in resources and opportunities associated with geography, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, immigration status and other factors; (3) The challenges must be met through a unified approach that crosses sectors and systems on both a local and regional scale; and (4) Fostering healthy youth and a healthy region requires leadership from many people, including youth themselves, and unrealized community assets across all nine Capital Region counties. This report urges leaders and community members to think regionally about youth, stressing that the conventional demarcations frequently used to plan and allocate public resources fail to account for young people's highly mobile lives. In addition, this report highlights undertapped regional wealth that could be mobilized to foster youth and regional health, including the energy, insight and talents of young people themselves throughout the area. (Contains 12 figures and 18 endnotes.) [This study was conducted by the UC Davis Center for Regional Change.]