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Mobilizing Young People in Community Efforts to Improve the Food Environment: Corner Store Conversions in East Los Angeles

Equity Focus

This study targets the mobilisation of young people in East Los Angeles, USA, to increase access to affordable, healthy food by transforming corner shops.

Case Summary

Three focus groups with 30 participants total (54% of the total number of students) were conducted with teens aged 16–17 years enrolled in an elective course, “Market Makeovers and Social Marketing,” at two public high schools. A unique characteristic of the project was an emphasis on building local capacity and providing training and professional opportunities. The project's youth engagement component was designed not only to increase the students' knowledge of public health issues, but also to help them develop the skills necessary to continue being health advocates and to help sustain the project's efforts beyond the elective course. For example, students were not only motivated to improve their own eating habits, but were also provided training on how to initiate behavior change among their peers and relatives.

Lessons Learned

• This study adds to the growing body of literature on how young people perceive the role of social and -physical environmental factors in community health, as well as how they can be directly engaged in addressing them. This study provides young people's perspectives on how to effectively engage and sustain their involvement in corner store interventions to improve the food environment and facilitate positive changes in dietary behavior. These findings might prompt future funding and policy initiatives to develop youth-engaged components for community-level efforts, particularly efforts that focus on building local capacity and providing professional development opportunities. Such efforts not only help sustain the skills that young people develop, but can also facilitate the projects' sustainability.

LINK TO CASE STUDY