Youth and Family Enrichment Services

The program started as an effort to reach out to children who were losing a parent to a terminal illness or living with parents who have chronic disease, especially HIV, which is widespread in the Haitian community. Many of these children were living with fear and grief because of the sudden or progressive physical or psychological loss of their parents. They missed having healthy parents to engage in creative activities with them. OAMEC was kept anonymous for several years to protect the confidentiality of the early participants. A few years ago, we expanded the program to include a broader target population, including a majority who are at high risk in some way, with special attention still paid to children who have lost parents to disease or who live with chronically ill parents. The change avoids the need for anonymity, overcomes isolation and stigmatization, and fosters a more diverse social environment, with lots of peer support.OAMEC's goal is to provide music education as a means of self-expression for youth who are at risk and/or face health or socioeconomic hardships in their families. The program was originally exclusively for children of HIV victims and still serves some such children, but has broadened its target population

YOFES embarked on its second year of implementing the HART (Haitian American Responsible Teens) program. The program provides comprehensive prevention education (sexuality and nutrition) to high school students. With the relentless efforts of our well-trained health educators, YOFES is able to engage High school youth, within the Greater Boston, to make prevention their priority as they prepare for their future. Our collaboration with school teachers is vital to the success of the program. It is because of their support that the program is now being implemented in Boston Tech Academy, Community Academy of Science and Health (CASH), Newcomers Academy, West Roxbury High school, all 4 in Dorchester, Malden High school, Everett High School, Cambridge Ringe and Latin High School, and Randolph High school. Participants receive a stipend, but more importantly, they contribute to a much needed research on Haitian teens, at the same time they learn to protect their good health.

YOFES offers parenting education that support and help parents understand the developmental stages of adolescence. These workshops teach parents how to better communicate with youth and support them through an often difficult developmental cycle. The goal of the Parent Education program is to help parents and youth better communicate and engage with one another. In addition to this program, we offer the following services often free of charge to low to moderate families.Traditional Haitian society has an authoritarian nature, especially regarding parent-child relationships; a minimum of parent-child communication is the norm, with little negotiation or information-sharing with children. Children and adolescents are expected to follow rules that are sometimes not appropriate for their developmental stage.

YOFES works with the Haitian Health Institute to conduct the annual Haitian Health Career Leadership Conference, which is an annual event that has been conducted by HHI since 2001 and annually since 2003. Local college and gradate students also assist with planning. The conference is intended for high school and college aged students. We work with guidance counselors in the Boston Public School system to publicize the conference and identify Haitian students who are interested in attending the conference. Recruitment of college students is conducted via the numerous student organizations on the BMC (Boston Medical Center) medical campus. The majority of students recruited through this method have expressed interest in pursuing health and health related careers.