Youth Support Groups
SUNDAY SUPPORT
Every Sunday, young patients from WE-ACTx’s Centreville clinic gather together for a day of peer-led support groups, community-building games, yoga, and a healthy snack.
Under the supervision of WE-ACTx’s Youth Program Coordinator, our twenty Peer Parents facilitate group conversations for youth ages 12-20 focusing on overcoming the challenges of adherence to HIV medication. These “family groups,” which are stratified according to age and gender, create a consistent safe space for teens to discuss personal issues related to living with HIV and their overall well-being. The support groups are followed by peer-led yoga classes that give youth the opportunity to release physical and emotional tension, build strength, and enjoy each other’s company.
For patients under 12, the Peer Parents facilitate an afternoon of community-building games, music-making, yoga and other sports. We believe that helping our youngest patients have spaces to create, to play, and to connect with each other is integral to helping them sustain the highest possible level of physical and mental health as they continue to grow.
WE-ACTx Summer Youth Program
Every summer, WE-ACTx’s Peer Parents team up with our partners at Musicians without Borders, a group of students from Chicago’s Latin High School, and an array of local and international teaching artists to run an arts-based summer program for the pre-teen patients of our two local clinics. Activities such as theater, music, traditional dance, painting, yoga and soccer give youth crucial opportunities to express themselves, and to form long-term friendships. Over the course of the 3-week program, WE-ACTx’s young patients create an original performance piece, drawn from their shared experiences and imaginations, which they present to friends and family at our big end-of-summer celebration. The program’s aim is to improve campers’ abilities to share their feelings and ideas, to increase their comfort level in seeking care from WE-ACTx’s integrated services, and to strengthen the supportive relationships that WE-ACTx’s young patients have built with the Peer Parents and each other.
Youth Clinic Day
As part of our commitment to tailoring our services to meet patient-identified needs, WE-ACTx strives to foster an open dialogue with our young patients about we can best serve them. In response to a request from our youth community in 2011, health care providers at the Centreville clinic designated Wednesdays as “Youth Clinic Day” which allows pediatric and adolescent patients to seek comprehensive care in the comfort of a youth-only environment. WE-ACTx kids and teens now have the opportunity to connect with friends from our summer camp and year-round support programs, attend mini-seminars about self-care, and peruse our colorful children’s library before and after their appointments.
SATURDAY SUPPORT
At the Nyacyonga Health Center, youth of all ages come together every Saturday for a morning of traditional dance, music-making, and community games. Following the full-group activities, our Nyacyonga Peer Parents facilitate discussion groups for older youth, while younger children play and enjoy a snack.