Keywords

The UCLA-Labor Occupational Safety Program: Youth Project developed a curriculum to educate young people about the hazards they may encounter within the workplace in order to reduce the number of incidences of occupational health and safety hazards for youth.

1 Background

The Youth Project that was run out of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program (LOSH) provides an example of an outstanding educational prevention program targeted at Latino/a youth in South-Central Los Angeles (SCLA). UCLA-LOSH was founded in 1978, upon receiving a Federal Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) New Directions in Worker Training planning grant. Since that time UCLA-LOSH has become a nationally recognized center in Southern California that provides Spanish and English worker training, educational material development, technical assistance, and policy information in workplace health and safety. LOSH works toward its mission of researching and providing education and training in order to improve environmental and safety conditions for workers by collaborating with workers, unions, community-based organizations, and health professionals (UCLA-LOSH, 2002).

In accordance with its mission, LOSH heads projects that focus on hazardous waste workers, immigrant workers, and working teens. A grant report tells that from 1987 to 2002, LOSH was a lead agency of the five-member California–Arizona Consortium, funded by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), to educate workers and communities about the potential health effects of hazardous waste exposure. The immigrant worker project, VOICES from the Plant Floor, involves investigation of workers’ perceptions of occupational safety and health in occupations where there is a high concentration of immigrant workers. This project involves documenting workers’ experiences, insights, and ideas with the intent of informing policy and interventions that will protect workers’ safety and health (UCLA-LOSH, 2002).

1.1 The Youth Project: History and Development

The Youth Project (alternately called the Young Worker Project) that ran out of LOSH is exemplary in executing a targeted, developmentally/culturally appropriate, holistic, and community-based educational primary prevention program. The project is collaborative in that it involves a partnership between a university, schools, and the community. The collaborative nature of this project has lent itself to the development and implementation of a primary prevention program that is both systematic and supported by academic research and flexible and responsive to the specific needs of the target population. Another aspect of its effectiveness is that the project was designed to meet the developmental needs of adolescents with methods that are culturally appropriate with Latino/a populations. The result is a multilevel approach to occupational injury prevention that has resulted in behavioral and environmental changes in the SCLA area.

The Youth Project is targeted toward Latino/a youth in the SCLA area in Southern California. While the primary recipients of the program are high school students, a main goal of the project is to also reach the parents and the wider community through these students. By training and empowering the youth to become health and safety advocates and conduits of information in their communities, this project reaches a much wider population than the youth involved. It is important to note that, historically, a focus on occupational safety for Latino/a youth is warranted in the United States because this group of young workers is especially vulnerable to fatal and severe injuries and has higher rates of employment in hazardous industries such as construction and agriculture (Greenhouse, 2002).

The LOSH Youth Project started in 1996 with a grant from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). NIOSH is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention within the Public Health Service of the US Department of Health and Human Services. Initial funding was provided to three community-based health education projects on young worker issues. The projects were located in three separate sites: Brockton, Massachusetts (Massachusetts Department of Public Health and Education Development Center, Inc.), Oakland, California (University of California at Berkeley Labor Occupational Health Program), and Los Angeles California (Labor Occupational Health and Safety Program) (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health [NIOSH], 1999). The projects worked for 3 years (1996–1999) in three different communities, to raise the awareness of young worker issues at the community level. The results of these projects were published by NIOSH in 1999 in a how-to resource guide entitled Promoting Safe work for Young Workers: A Community-Based Approach (http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/99-141.html).

The pilot education project at UCLA-LOSH, initially funded through 3 years from NIOSH, evolved from a partnership between Jefferson High School (JHS), a community-based organization called Concerned Citizens of SCLA (CCSCLA), and the UCLA-LOSH Program. The school and community of Jefferson were selected because they met the target population selection criteria and because the teachers expressed a desire to strengthen school-community links. Early grant proposals and reports reveal that the initial selection criteria were to target populations who had demographic diversity, who also had a socioeconomic need, and where there was the existence of willing community-based organizations that could help to ensure the long-term sustainability of the project (LOSH, 1998).

The relationship between LOSH and the pilot school was nurtured by the eagerness of the teachers at JHS. Moreover, JHS in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is described as a school with a student population of approximately 3400, of which almost 90% are Latino/a and many are recent immigrants to the United States (LOSH, 1998). Both the school and the CCSCLA were already active in the community, and LOSH had collaborated with both organizations on other projects. Thus, the collaborative base for the project was previously established so that focus on integrating the NIOSH-funded work-related curriculum into the LAUSD began immediately.

1.2 Professional Affiliations

The Youth Project was affiliated with numerous professional and academic bodies that focus on young worker issues. Two such associations are the National Young Worker Safety and Health Network and the California Partnership for Young Workers Health and Safety. The National Young Worker Safety and Health Network was comprised of researchers, educators, public health professionals, medical specialists, pediatricians, governmental representatives, and others who have, as a common goal, the safety of youth in the workplace. It was founded at the 1996 American Public Health Association’s Annual Meeting in New York City and meets annually at that conference, quarterly via telephone conference calls, and on an as-needed basis through a list serve where members would share ideas and resources concerning policy, emerging issues, research, curriculum development, etc. (LOSH, 2002).

The Youth Project was also an active member of the California Partnership for Young Workers’ Health and Safety which consists of representatives from governmental agencies, educational institutions, state parent organizations, and other state-wide organizations that are involved with California youth employment and education issues. The group has also been active in sponsoring legislation to improve the state youth work permit system. In 1999, this group was successful in having the governor declare the month of May as the Safe Jobs for Youth (SJFY) Month (LOSH, 2002).

1.3 Project Goals

Early grant reports reveal that the overall goals at the outset of the Youth Project were as follows:

  1. 1.

    Understand and describe the work experience of inner-city students in a predominately Mexican immigrant, Korean, and African-American community, where they work, whether they get required work permits, the extent of their exposure to safety and health hazards including stressors such as sexual harassment and the requirement to work too many hours.

  2. 2.

    Integrate curriculum and peer education (PE)/youth leadership program into the schools to educate students about hazards, rights and responsibilities, and resources and how they can get support to speak up about problems.

  3. 3.

    Reach the broader Spanish-speaking community about workplace health and safety through an educated student population (LOSH, 1998).

Subsequent project reports show that general goals remained consistent throughout the duration of the project with one shift in target population. The original goals show that the project would be aimed at Latino/a, Korean, and African-American students/communities. However, as the project evolved, the focus narrowed to Latino/a youth. Factors that influenced this shift include demographics of the SCLA population (predominately Latino/a), the existence of receptive community-based support, and the responsiveness of the Latino/a community. In addition, the Korean community support agencies were already overcommitted to other projects (L. Delp, personal communication, September 10, 2002).

Over time the scope of the project expanded to include an agenda of environmental health issues in addition to workplace health and safety. Broadening the scope of health and safety issues covered by the Youth Project was in part influenced by funding opportunities available through the California Endowment (L. Kominski, personal communication, August 15, 2002). At the same time, issues of environmental hazards in SCLA posed a significant threat to the community, and its inclusion in the project was warranted and contributed to its overall effectiveness as a health and safety promotion program. In a grant report detailing project activity from 1998 to 2002, broadened project objectives were stated as follows:

  • To sustain and significantly expand the university, school, and community collaboration between UCLA-LOSH, CCSCLA, and Jefferson and Fremont High Schools, to fully mobilize available/diverse resources, and to address environmental justice issues in SCLA

  • To strengthen the knowledge and skills of students and teachers regarding both workplace and community health hazards and their rights

  • To strengthen community organizing and analytical skills of students and to provide leadership opportunities to exercise these skills by developing PE outreach programs and community-based internships

  • To strengthen the environmental justice organizing capabilities of CCSCLA and other organizations by developing youth leaders who work within those organizations and who link with other youth environmental leaders in the community

  • To document this effort in a variety of ways so it can serve as a model for other school/community agency/university collaborations to enhance community efforts in achieving improved environmental health (LOSH, 2002)

1.4 Prevention Model and Methods

1.4.1 Empowerment Education Model

This education intervention model is based on the principles of empowerment education . The empowerment education model assumes that prevention efforts must go “beyond the prevailing emphasis on individual behavior change. The threats to occupational and environmental health necessitate a broader approach—one that combines both individual and community empowerment to enhance the health of all residents in a community” (Delp, 2002). The empowerment education approach stresses that participants must use health and safety information to improve their own lives as they analyze the socioeconomic factors that contribute to the problem. From the perspective of this model, health and safety issues are not seen as purely technical issues (LOSH, 1999). The key elements of this model are based on the principles of the listening/dialogue/action model set forth by educator and founder of empowerment education, Paulo Freire. Three critical assumptions of this model are as follows:

  1. 1.

    Education starts from the participants’ own experiences. These experiences must include the opportunity for the youth to discuss their collective knowledge and experiences about the problem.

  2. 2.

    Empowerment education must include dialogue to build critical consciousness, i.e., the ability to analyze the root causes of social problems.

  3. 3.

    Education programs must build skills, confidence, and opportunities for individual and collective action (Delp, 2002).

The basic principles of empowerment education guided the general development of this prevention project. An early grant report provides elaboration upon the basic assumptions of empowerment education in the context of the Youth Project as follows:

  1. 1.

    Increased knowledge is a necessary but not sufficient first step to reducing hazards. Students must also have the opportunity to apply information about hazard identification and control to current or potential jobs, to develop confidence and effective communication skills, and to practice speaking up constructively about problems.

  2. 2.

    Social support is an important step in dealing with and resolving workplace problems. Students generally work in nonunion jobs so they cannot rely on union representation if they face problems at work. The curricula are designed to reinforce the importance of talking to coworkers for support to minimize the concern that they will be singled out and fired for raising health and safety issues. This intervention is also designed with the long-term goal of developing an ongoing social support network for young workers within the school and community rather than simply implementing a one-time curriculum unit.

  3. 3.

    Students not only benefit from the existence of a social support network but also help create that network. Peer educators can educate other students and the community through formal presentations and can provide resources and support through informal support networks such as their relationships with friends and family members (LOSH, 1999).

1.4.2 PE Methods

The method of PE is a fundamental component of this educational prevention design. It was noted in early grant proposals that teen PE was chosen as a method because it had proven to be effective in raising awareness of other health issues in LA such as AIDS prevention (LOSH, 1998). It was also believed that peer education would build youth leadership skills in the population. By focusing on creating youth leaders, it was hoped that a sustainable knowledge base and community infrastructure would be created. Thus, the prevention effort aimed at affecting long-term behavioral and environmental changes within the target community. Furthermore, peer education methods and youth leadership training address the specific developmental needs of adolescents who rely on their peers as sources of support and identity formation.

The principles of PE as an effective prevention tool are outlined as follows:

  • Young people who become peer educators will have integrated health and safety into their consciousness and will enter the workplace with advocacy and organizing skills in addition to knowledge about their rights as workers.

  • By targeting Latino/a youth, this emerging immigrant culture will have trained and skilled advocates within their communities to serve as resources and leaders.

  • Some peer educators will be inspired to become teachers, health professionals, government inspectors, or community organizers and will carry their knowledge of health and safety issues into their careers (LOSH, 1999).

2 Resources

LOSH employs a multiethnic , bilingual staff of ten and (in 2002) had an annual operating budget of approximately $500,000. Of these ten staff, four were employed to work exclusively with the Youth Project, and four LOSH staff were former students of the Youth Project (L. Kominski, personal communication, October 17, 2002). LOSH is part of UCLA, and the office space is provided for by the university (LOSH, 1998). The operating costs of each LOSH project were funded mainly through external grants. Table 32.1 provides approximations of year-by-year costs and funding sources from the outset of the Young Workers Project until 2002.

Table 32.1 Annual costs and funding for Young Workers Project
Full size table

The Youth Project was established out of a collaborative base comprised of UCLA-LOSH, Concerned Citizens of SCLA, and JHS. Through outreach efforts, media coverage, and networking between community organizations and project participants, the base of collaboration and support grew to include two more LAUSD high schools, numerous community organizations, students/youths and their parents, elected officials, health professionals, teachers, community members, national and state funding organizations, and evaluation professionals. The participating teachers and schools worked together with LOSH to develop, implement, and evaluate the educational intervention. Community organizations provided internship opportunities for students and advisory support regarding project development, implementation, and evaluation. Elected officials became involved in publicizing May as Safe Work for Youth Month. A private research group conducted project evaluation in the form of focus groups with student interns and surveys of teachers and community-based organizations. NIOSH and a private foundation, California Endowment, provided funding for the project through a series of grants.

The collaborative base grew over time. As was already stated, the project grew to include implementation of the curriculum in two additional schools. LOSH provided numerous in-service teacher-training sessions to facilitate this endeavor. As students became peer educators and interns, community forums were held to inform community members of worker rights and environmental justice issues.

Over time the school-based curriculum was developed and refined with input from students and teachers. The scope of the project expanded its original focus on teen worker health and safety to include a broader concept of health and safety that included environmental health. This flexibility in project goals was a reflection of its commitment to meeting the expressed needs of the target population.

3 Implementation

Rather than develop an educational intervention based on a specific injury type, body part, or industry, the LOSH Youth Project takes a community health education approach to promoting workplace health and safety. This approach focuses on empowering youth to protect their workplace rights, to advocate for change, and to act as sources of health and safety information to their families, schools/peers, workplaces, and communities. Early grant proposals show that implementation was planned according to the Community Health Promotion Model created by Bracht and Kingsbury (LOSH, 1998).

3.1 Pilot Phase

The initial education curriculum was developed through a joint effort with JHS teachers. It was decided to create a curriculum unit targeted at ninth grade students who were required to take an education and career planning course. The teachers noted that the curriculum they were using was out of date and not interesting to the students. Based on the needs articulated by the teachers, a 10-h curriculum unit, SJFY, was developed. This unit includes information about how to identify hazards in your workplace, child labor laws, sexual harassment, and workers’ compensation. The unit was developed according to the empowerment education model and is participatory in that it engages students with case studies, videos, and role-play activities to help them identify risks and practice speaking-up on the job (NIOSH, 1999).

In addition to collaborating with teachers, LOSH conducted a needs assessment of the target student population. A questionnaire, developed by the University of North Carolina and implemented by LOSH, was given to a random sample of 296 students at JHS during their English classes (Delp, Runyan, Brown, Bowling, & Jahan, 2002). The purpose of the questionnaire was to ascertain the level of student knowledge regarding Young Worker rights, including knowledge of the work permit process in California and workplace health and safety regulatory/advocacy organizations. Subsequently, focus groups were conducted with the youth to learn more about the responses given in the surveys. The information gleaned was used to aid in the development of the curriculum. Results were also used to gain insight into the state work permit process. The results of this research were published (see Delp et al., 2002).

Moreover, an advisory board and steering committee were established to inform and guide the development of the project. The project was directed by the steering committee, which consisted of representatives from each partner organization. A 15-member advisory board, which represented the larger community of students, parents, teachers, government agencies, labor unions, youth groups, and other community-based organizations, also provided guidance. The steering committee met regularly to make decisions about project planning and implementation and to direct the evaluation of its progress. Once the original project goals were met and the curricula were completed, Youth Project at LOSH staff assumed the primary decision-making role, although outside input remains solicited (LOSH, 2002). The Community Advisory Board met biannually (from June 1998 to February 2001) to guide and advise the project. Advisory Board members helped develop and implement the community and media outreach plan; kept the project informed of community involvement opportunities; were directly involved in project activities such as teaching, sponsoring internships, and developing written material; and participated in the evaluation and assessment of the project, including strategic planning for the future (LOSH, 2002).

Prior to the implementation of the SJFY curriculum, four workshops were held as an after-school program, sponsored by a Jefferson social studies teacher, to inform youth about the following:

  1. 1.

    Health and safety on the job

  2. 2.

    Sexual harassment at work

  3. 3.

    Wage and hour provisions under the state child labor law

  4. 4.

    Workers’ compensation provisions

The Youth Project reported that most of the youth who initially volunteered for the project had a negative job experience and wanted to know about their workplace rights (LOSH, 2002). This preliminary group of students met weekly and learned about workplace health and safety issues. Then, they participated in a two-session, train-the-trainer, PE class. Next, with support from their teachers and LOSH staff, these youth went to various classrooms and community meetings as peer educators to teach what they had learned to wider audiences in the school and outside community.

3.2 Curriculum Development

With a second grant from a private foundation, the California Endowment, the project expanded into regular JHS classrooms and into two additional partner schools: Fremont High School and Manual Arts High School (LOSH, 2002). The ten-session SJFY curriculum had been developed to teach ninth grade students about teen worker rights. Half-day in-service teacher workshops on the curriculum were conducted by LOSH using the exercises contained in the unit. During the period from April to June 2000, SJFY was implemented in 14 Life Skills for the twenty-first century courses (a mandatory 20-week course for all ninth grade students) and reached 250 students at JHS. The SJFY curriculum replaced the earlier education and career planning section that the teachers felt was outdated. Those who used the curriculum were Life Skills teachers, work experience educators, and others who had participated in workshops (LOSH, 2002).

With the California Endowment funds, a semester-long (16 weeks) curriculum was also created for 11th and 12th grade students. A broader focus on environmental safety was incorporated into the project through this curriculum. The resulting Healthy Communities, Healthy Jobs (HC, HJ) curriculum included opportunities for youth to participate in community internships. The youth also received training and experience to become peer educators. This curriculum strived to foster youth leadership within the community, build self-esteem, and believe in their ability to make a difference. Leadership skills were built through hands-on activities, in-class projects, and PE training. In addition, an option was available for students to be involved with a community internship in collaborating community organizations or labor unions. During the internships, students were involved in projects that helped them to develop research, organization, and leadership skills. These were paid internships, and, in some cases, students also received academic credit for their participation.

The same Jefferson teacher who had piloted the after-school program was key to this aspect of the project’s success as he agreed to pilot the semester-long curriculum as an elective (LOSH, 2002). An evaluation that included administering written questionnaires to the students and teachers and student focus groups was conducted both prior to participation in the class and upon completion of the class. The curriculum was revised based upon the feedback from the students and the teacher. From 1998 to 2001, the HC, HJ curriculum was implemented at JHS, reaching a total of 57 students (LOSH, 2002). In addition, in 2000, it was implemented in one class at Fremont High School and one class at Manual Arts High School (LOSH, 2002).

3.3 Curriculum Description

The semester-long HC, HJ curriculum contains five sections (see below). The introduction to the unit contains five sessions. Students are familiarized with such concepts as environmental justice, workplace health and safety, PE, and the power of collective action. The next unit, HC, focuses on environmental health issues, including air, water, and soil pollution and the health benefits of clean environment. The next unit, SJFY (10 sessions), focuses on workplace health and safety for youth. The following unit, PE (15 sessions), teaches students how to become peer educators and how to educate their families and communities about occupational health and safety information. The last unit contains two sessions offering activities that provide students an opportunity to summarize and reflect on what they have learned and plan their next steps for doing more work in this area (LOSH, 2002).

3.3.1 Curriculum Outline

  1. 1.

    Introduction to healthy communities (HC), healthy jobs (HJ)

    • Using case studies as learning tools

    • Five sessions

  2. 2.

    Healthy communities (HC)

    • Researching and addressing community environmental health concerns

    • Five sessions

  3. 3.

    SJFY

    • Child labor history and laws, identifying and solving hazards in the workplace, resolving problems on the job

    • Ten sessions

  4. 4.

    PE

    • How to Work as a Team; How to Develop Lesson Plans; How to Make Presentations; How to Teach Health and Safety using a Popular Education Approach

    • 15 sessions

  5. 5.

    Conclusion—Healthy Communities, Healthy Jobs: REFLECTIONS and NEXT STEPS for Making a Difference!

    • Ways to Get Involved in Community Health Issues; Evaluation

    • Two sessions

In 2001, the Youth Project’s emphasis changed from the previous 5 years pilot phase to expansion. Additional units of the HC, HJ curriculum were added, and the targeted schools and the number of involved community organizations increased. As each curriculum unit was completed, it was made available free of charge for download from the UCLA-LOSH website (www.losh.ucla.edu) or for purchase, at cost, from UCLA-LOSH. During this time, Youth Project staff conducted extensive outreach that included in-service workshops for teachers interested in implementing all or part of the curriculum. In some of the workshops, the teachers could receive a continuing education credit (LOSH, 2002).

3.4 Evaluation Methods

Evaluation was an ongoing part of the LOSH Youth Project. Initial methods included the needs assessment in 1996, observations, as well as surveys and focus groups with students, teachers, and interns. LOSH staff, teachers, a UCLA technical assistance group, and a private research group implemented evaluations. The following is a list of historically used methods for evaluating the process and outcome of project activities:

  1. 1.

    Pre- and postworkshop quizzes as well as focus groups for both teachers and students to assess knowledge gained about the topics covered in the trainings (immediate outcome evaluation).

  2. 2.

    Posttraining evaluations from participants regarding their assessment of the training workshops in order to make them more effective (process evaluation).

  3. 3.

    Surveys and interviews of teachers/case managers who attended the workshops to determine who will incorporate the units into their classes, what factors influenced their decisions, and how they plan to teach the units. Those planning to teach the units will be encouraged to contact the Youth Project for any technical assistance they need while teaching the curriculum (process evaluation).

  4. 4.

    Interviews of teachers who have taught classes using the Youth Project curriculum, soliciting their experiences in teaching the curriculum units in the classroom, their opinion of the effectiveness of the curriculum, and recommendations for improving LOSH training methods and/or curriculum content (outcome evaluation).

  5. 5.

    Interviews of teachers who have not implemented any of the curriculum units focusing on their reasons so that a plan for overcoming barriers can be developed for future funding plans (Outcome Evaluation) (LOSH, 2002).

3.4.1 Methodological Advantages and Limitations

The primarily school-based nature of this project has advantages and limitations. Implementing prevention programs through schools carries the advantage of reaching potentially large numbers of youth either before they start working or early in their careers. Thus, the advantage of school-based prevention initiatives is that they can reach target populations at the pre-event stage. At the same time, students who drop out of school are missed by such school-based efforts. This scenario is of particular concern with respect to the Latin American population in the United States, as they have a higher dropout rate than other populations (Delp, 2002). Furthermore, mass implementation of the HC, HJ curriculum was impeded due to political and funding issues faced by public schools in California (L. Kominski, personal communication, October 17, 2002).

To address these limitations, the Youth Project began to collaborate with community-based youth training programs outside of schools to assure these youths were informed of their health and safety rights. From May to June 2002, the Youth Project staff conducted five half-day workshops under an agreement with the UCLA Office of the Instructional Development’s Community-Based Learning Program. The workshops were presented to Workforce Investment Act Youth Program case managers and UCLA community workers. Under the agreement to train up to 150 individuals, the SJFY curriculum was modified, and a three-session mini-unit for community-based programs was printed. Each participant received a curriculum and video. The sessions were held at the community agencies: Bresee Foundation, Watts Labor Community Action Center, Youth Opportunities, San Fernando Gardens, and Los Angeles Urban League.

One missing component of this project is a connection with employers. Employers are major stakeholders in preventing occupational injuries and legally responsible for providing safe and healthy workplaces. As such, they should be involved in creating/participating in prevention programs. However, it is unclear as to whether it is possible to negotiate the often-conflicting interests of employers and employees into one program. It is also doubtful that the project would have been as free as it had been to empower youth to advocate for their rights had employers been involved as partners. Perhaps a compromise would be to include exemplary employers of youth as partners in order to bring all the required stakeholders together and extend the reach of the project.

Programs such as the LOSH Youth Project are multidimensional in that they link research-based, school-based, and community-based initiatives. Furthermore, they aim to affect change at the level of individuals, communities, and systems—creating a comprehensive approach to occupational health and safety and being able to generate multiple and relevant solutions. One such inherent asset of this design is in providing youth with important health and safety information coupled with developing leadership skills. Such flexibility is an intrinsic strength of multiagency, multidimensional prevention programs over single-focus, single-agency programs.

4 Outcome

The LOSH Youth Project sought long-term, sustainable change by empowering the youth to become leaders in their communities. It was designed to be a comprehensive educational program that would create a change in consciousness and behavior to be carried forth throughout the participants’ life.

I think our successes were based on our recognition of the unique needs of our immigrant community, and we tailored our work to those needs. For example, the role the students played in the project turned out to be very different from what we expected. Initially, we had planned to reach teens by involving parents in the project. However, in our community, where so many of the parents are not proficient in English and know very little about their own legal rights at the workplace, it went otherwise. The teens ended up educating the parents. In fact, the teens became a very valuable liaison between the project and the entire community, and in the process, they developed their own knowledge, leadership, and communication skills (as cited by NIOSH, 1999, p. 5).

The Youth Project proved successful in reaching its initial project goals of understanding the work experience of Latino/a youth, integrating curriculum into some classes in the LAUSD, and reaching the broader Spanish-speaking community. The LOSH Youth Project was also successful in creating a sustainable community-based prevention infrastructure in numerous ways.

As of 2017, UCLA-LOSH continues to prioritize the education of young workers (UCLA-LOSH, n.d.-a). They now lead a program called Young Worker Leadership Academy in place of their original Youth Project (UCLA-LOSH, n.d.-b). The Young Worker Leadership Academy program is associated with Young Workers (see http://youngworkers.org) and the Young Workers Project run by the University of California, at Berkley Labor Occupational Health Program. These projects continue to work with a variety of community, educational, and government organizations (Regents of the University of California, n.d.). For more information, visit the Young Workers website (http://youngworkers.org/).

4.1 Systemic Changes

The full curriculum was adopted and instituted in classes in three schools in the SCLA area and was tried in numerous other schools. During the period from April to June 2000, the SJFY curriculum was implemented in 14 Los Angeles School District schools. Implementation of this portion of the curriculum was most successful in terms of reaching a wider student body. The semester long HC, HJ curriculum section was implemented at JHS where 57 students participated. In addition, in the year 2000, two additional schools offered this course where it reached an additional 36 students (LOSH, 2002). Also, 30 HC, HJ students who had taken the class were hired with community-based organizations as interns (L. Kominski, personal communication, October 17, 2002).

The response to the curriculum and internship programs was positive on the part of teachers and career/work counselors. A growing number of teachers have received in-service training, thereby creating a knowledgeable resource base within the LAUSD. Between 1999 and 2001, a total of 294 LAUSD teachers and career counselors received training in the use and implementation of the curriculum. The SJFY portion of the curriculum was adopted on a larger scale as it was integrated into a mandatory Life Skills course required for all LAUSD ninth grade students (LOSH, 2002).

In addition to training teachers, LOSH staff and interns were successful in offering workshops and community forums to other professional and community stakeholders. For example, health and safety workshops were conducted through two Latino/a community-based organizations, thereby reaching workers outside the reach of the school system. Between 2001 and 2002, professional development training on the SJFY curriculum was offered to approximately 200 professionals associated with youth employment through various agencies (LOSH, 2002). LOSH has conducted research on the effectiveness of the State’s Work Permit system and provided these results.

4.2 Changes in Consciousness

A comparison of pre-/posttests and follow-up focus group discussions shows a significant increase in students’ awareness of their rights and of resource organizations concerned with workplace safety (Delp, 2002). Pre- and posttests were given in 13 ninth grade classes (Delp, 2002). These SJFY students showed significant increases in knowledge gains in the posttest compared to pretest knowledge (Delp, 2002). They also reported that they had gained a sense of confidence because of knowing their workplace rights (Delp, 2002).

The students who were exposed to the semester-long HC, HJ show similar knowledge gains and report being motivated to act in their communities (Delp, 2002). Furthermore, focus group results with these students report that they have developed critical consciousness of workplace hazards as they relate to the greater sociopolitical context (Delp, 2002). In the empowerment education model , this step is necessary for social change/action to occur (Delp, 2002).

4.3 Behavioral Changes

The project was successful in that there was an increase in youth involvement in the SCLA community. The development of skills through PE training and the hands-on experience provided through internships resulted in students developing advocacy skills, confidence, and motivation to act as leaders in their community. Thus, the project was successful in facilitating behavioral changes in youth in the SCLA community.

In addition to increased community involvement, students reported that they act as sources of information regarding workplace safety and workers’ rights in both their communities and families. Interviews with 35 students showed that these students gave information to 500 community members outside of the 300 students that they reached through PE programs in schools (Delp, 2002).

Finally, during follow-up telephone interviews, intern students reported that their behavior at work had changed. Students reported that they now request safety training and equipment, are aware of workplace hazards, speak to their supervisors about them, know their rights, refuse to work late or too many hours, and have reported injuries, and several students report quitting their jobs because of unsafe work conditions (N. Morales, personal communication, August 17, 2002).

4.4 Community Impact

The program goal of empowering youth to act as agents of social change was met, and this phenomenon resulted in direct impact on the SCLA community. Three examples of such changes are as follows: (a) Interns helped create a coalition of youth organizations that advocated for legal, educational, and environmental issues impacting youth. (b) Interns organized to get the Labor Commission to prosecute an employer who violated child labor laws. (c) Students organized to pressure the government to clean up contaminated soil at a middle school and testified in the state capital in support of legislation to prevent building schools on contaminated land (Delp, 2002).

Several of the actions taken by students received regional and national media attention. Articles were published in The Los Angeles Times and Time Magazine. The project was adopted outside of SCLA, thereby broadening its regional impact. The SJFY curriculum was adopted in Dade County, Florida, as part of the after-school migrant workers education program, showing that it is relevant and replicable with student populations outside Los Angeles. In April 2001, UCLA-LOSH gave a presentation about the Youth Project to a community-based organization (Community Voices) in Miami, Florida. As a result, they implemented the curriculum in Homestead, Florida, a very poor farming area with high numbers of Spanish-speaking immigrant workers. One year later, Community Voices piloted the curriculum in the Miami-Dade Migrant Education Program’s after-school program at two high schools and two middle schools, reaching a total of 110 youth aged 12–19. The director of the County Migrant Education Program was impressed with the pilot and consequently advocated for it to be included as one of ten themes to be mandated in the Migrant Education Program throughout the State of Florida. It was adopted in five schools (LOSH, 2002).

5 Conclusion

The problem of young worker injury, illness, and fatality is complex. The LOSH Youth Project acknowledges that Young Workers injuries are influenced by the broader sociopolitical context. Furthermore, the project recognizes the specific social conditions faced by the Latino/a community in the SCLA district. Their response was to develop a project that sought to empower marginalized youth so that they cannot only prevent injuries but also fully understand their social circumstances and recognize their power to change them. Thus, rather than using an injury-/industry-specific approach, UCLA-LOSH developed a systemic prevention program that targeted change at the individual, community, and societal levels.

In combining the expertise of UCLA, schools, and community organizations, the UCLA-LOSH Youth Project facilitated the development of a primary prevention program that was research-based, responsive to the needs of its target group, and could reach the wider population. By basing the project on prior research about PE and the role of youth in Latino/a communities, LOSH developed a culturally and developmentally appropriate model. This academic professionalism also ensured that the project was developed, implemented, and evaluated systematically and ethically. By conducting ongoing evaluation, a curriculum was developed that was responsive to the needs of the target group. The expertise of LOSH staff in occupational health and safety provided the basis for the development of effective and well-informed prevention measures.

By utilizing the existing infrastructure of schools and community organizations, the curriculum was easily disseminated to the target population. Thus, by integrating the prevention measure into already-existing systems, access barriers were avoided. For example, by using the youth as sources of information within their home communities, language and cultural barriers that potentially exist with prevention programs that rely on outside professionals were avoided. In this project, it became evident that the wider Latin American community trusted the youth from their own communities. This trust resulted in people getting relevant assistance because they divulged more specific information about their individual occupational circumstances—for example, not having legal working papers—without the fear of reprisal (N. Morales, personal communication, August 17, 2002). Lastly, training youth to become leaders in their community carries an element of sustainability to the prevention model in that dependency on outside experts can be decreased over time as the community and schools take on increased responsibility for information dissemination.

UCLA-LOSH’s Youth Project provides an example of the preventive potential contained within collaborative partnerships. By bringing together stakeholders, LOSH served to contribute to a sustainable infrastructure that served to support the target community. By empowering the youth to become major stakeholders, the project had a built-in mechanism for longevity. Involved youth were equipped with information and skills that empowered them to advocate for workplace rights for themselves and others. This empowerment education, community-partnership prevention model equipped students to assess the hazards at their workplace and to stand up for their rights. The LOSH Youth Project contributed to the creation of a safety conscious, proactive workforce at the beginning of their careers, and, thus, the potential to change work environments and behaviors throughout their lives.