University Students: Opportunity for Community Engagement

“The activities of SALSA focused in schools, in helping students acquire the language whereby they can talk about lifestyle and make serious lifestyle choices. I think it's a very neat model where you're not just saying to school children: “sit back and listen, and I'll tell you all about it”. We're saying this is for you to be active - active in your learning, active in managing your lifestyle … but also active in giving the message more broadly to family and friends.”

"The value of the SALSA Program is really about getting into the children to help change the next generation, so we don't have the problems we are facing today with the obesity epidemic and the high number of diabetes. Especially here in Western Sydney, for the future generations."

“Hi, my name is Joelene. I'm 13 years old. I've done the SALSA Program at school, Chifley College Campus. In SALSA, we played games with our Year 10 mentors and watched videos about the healthy lifestyle. I really enjoyed playing soccer and basketball with the Year 10 mentos, and it made me want to be active.“

My name is Sala. I'm 15 years old. I go to Chifley College, My Druitt Campus. I became a peer leader for SALSA because I wanted to help our younger students understand more about living a healthy lifestyle. The highlight of being a SALSA Leader was: I got to participate in a range of activities with a lot of great people - I really liked on hosting the games!

My name is Alofa and I'm 16 years old and I go to Chifley College Mt Druitt Campus. I became a Peer Leader for the SALSA Program because I wanted to be a leader and be a role model to the little ones that go to our school. The highlight of being a SALSA Leader is getting to know others and their abilities of being healthy. What I enjoyed about SALSA Program was getting to know more about healthy living and lifestyle.

Hi, my name is Julian and I am 15 years old. I got to Chifly College Mt Druitt Campus and I'm a SALSA Leader here. It was fun being a SALSA Leader because you get to work with younger kids and see how they go around their day and see if they're healthy or unhealthy. And it's fun to make them get into a healthy lifestyle, unlike their previous lifestyle.

“I'm a second year medical student here at the university of Sydney, and I've been involved in the SALSA programme. The reason I became a [SALSA] Peer Educator is because I think that as a future clinician, health advocacy is very important. … In advocating for healthy lifestyle you're able to reach a much wider and broader audience and effect more people.
Working with the year 10 kids was my favourite part ... I realised that they were actually interested in being there and wanted to learn and hear what we had to say. It's been a fantastic experience, I've learned a lot about health advocacy. I've learned a lot about working with children and working in less well off areas of the city. I think that it's really important for all medical students to have an appreciation of these kinds of things.”

“The SALSA Program is important because it teaches students leadership skills and it gives them the idea of what it's like to teach in a class and it opens up their mind to those kinds of career paths.
… I liked that it gave him the ability to learn how to teach and what it was like in a classroom and how to interact with the students properly … I think that [University] students should … become Peer Educators as it allows them to learn, for one, how to teach and allows them to experience and learn more about health through actually teaching, which is a good way to learn.”

“[The SALSA Program] helped me see a different perspective of what the teacher [goes] through and it helped a lot with time management and organisation skills. It gives [students] … motivation to work well with others and it helps them to become more interactive with each other.”

“I've found being involved in the SALSA Program this year has increased my self confidence and motivated me to act as a role model and lead by example in attempting to influence younger students’ lifestyle habits. On top of that, being invested in public health is really important and keeps me passionate for this work. Seeing disadvantaged areas of Sydney that I wouldn't be exposed to during my studies has been really beneficial for my career, and it's been a real privilege to be involved in the SALSA Program. “

“What I've found so far in the SALSA Program is there a many professional benefits associated with it. First thing of all, is that it's being able to put something into practise, and some input into your CV, and being helpful to provide a lot of networking opportunities. And it's been great fun working with a lot of the students!”

“I've really liked being involved in the SALSA Program as is it's helped me academically with my Uni studies. It's given me experience working in groups, both with other uni students from other universities, as well as having to lead groups and facilitate with the Year 10 students. It's also given me lots of confidence with presentations and talking in front of big groups of people which has been really great, as well as just skills in teaching kids and learning how to do that kind of unique task, which isn't something that we get much exposure to in our normal university studies. Also it's just really helped me with learning about public health and actually being able to apply what I've learned in public health, both within the Program and what I've learned in medicine as well to a really practical setting, which helps me to learn it and remember it even more.”

"SALSA has given peer leaders interpersonal skills to work in different groups, and strengthened the value to live healthy lifestyles. The program is a positive avenue for students to learn through creativity and practice. "

“After so many years, we see the need and inherent value of the SALSA program throughout the school. It is one thing for teachers to work with students on healthy lifestyles; the value of the SALSA program is that university students with a deep understanding of public health, share their expertise with high school students and support them to deliver a well-researched, widely recognised program that aims beyond their immediate learning to an understanding of how the decisions they make as adolescents impact their life and health well into the future. In a school where 25% of the students live in homes of considerable poverty and 200 of the 1125 students have health plans for chronic poor health, a health strategy of this kind is a powerful opportunity to change health and life outcomes for those students, for all students”

"The Adolescent Asthma Action (Triple A) program is a breath of fresh air. Rather than relying on traditional approaches that have been developed for adults, this program uses an innovative peer-led model of asthma education and self-management. This approach empowers young people to make healthy decisions about asthma and its management and provides significant opportunities for leadership within school communities.
Since its introduction, the findings of rigorous evaluation have shown that the Triple A program improves knowledge and attitudes about asthma within school communities. It assists students with asthma to take control of their own health and has improved their quality of life."

“As someone who has asthma, I know how difficult it can be. At last, a program that has young people teaching other young people how to overcome the barriers to asthma has arrived, in the form of the Triple A program. Having been involved with the program, I have no hesitation in recommending the program to young people to become involved. “

“This knowledge was paramount in saving a life during a school camp, when a student had an asthma attack… a trained peer leader was confident enough to take control and manage the crisis by following the four steps of the asthma first aid plan.”