Engaging Youth Voices To Create Supportive School Environments For Healthy Eating And Physical Activity

Background: The Students As LifeStyle Activists (SALSA) Program is an effective Australian peer-led leadership program offered to high schools. SALSA Youth Voices (SYV) is a novel extension of the SALSA program, providing SALSA Peer Leaders with an opportunity to further develop leadership skills, and to design and implement an intervention to promote healthy eating and physical activity within their school. The objectives of this study were to 1) measure the acceptability of the SYV program, 2) determine skills gained by peer leaders from participating in SYV, and 3) determine whether peer leaders successfully implemented a student-designed healthy eating/physical activity intervention. Methods: Schools which participated in the SALSA program in 2019 were invited to a Leadership Day workshop (Term 3) where SALSA Peer Leaders identified and planned an activity to promote healthy eating and/or physical activity at their school, and an Action Day (Term 4) where peer leaders presented their interventions to 100 health and education professionals. Peer leaders completed two brief online surveys at the end of the Leadership Day and upon registration at the Action Day. Results: Eighty-four peer leaders (aged 14–15 years) from seven high schools in western Sydney (mean Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) = 951) participated in SYV. Peer leaders reported their involvement with the SYV program as positive, with 68% rating it as “very valuable”. Skills gained by the peer leaders included teamwork (90%), communication (85%), leadership (77%) and confidence (65%). Peer leaders planned and devised interventions included installing water refill stations, improving school gyms, redesigning girls’ sports shorts, and other strategies to engage girls in physical activity. Most peer leaders reported their intervention was successfully implemented and sustainable in their school. Conclusions: SYV provides a unique leadership opportunity for students from socio-economically disadvantaged areas to be effective agents of change to create opportunities for students to participate in physical activity and improve healthy food options at school.