Thinking Beyond Silos: How the Champions for Youth Summit Can Power Your Work

How do we grow as youth health professionals? Not just in what we know, but in how we think, connect, and lead meaningful change?

In this episode, you’ll hear firsthand the impact of stepping into spaces designed for inspiration, collaboration, and action. How the Champions for Youth Summit is creating opportunities to think outside the box across a wide range of health topics and offering real, tangible solutions to improve the well-being of youth.

Discover the value of bringing together hundreds of people like us, and leave empowered to take your work, and yourself, to the next level.

Join us May 4–6 in Reston, VA. Visit championsforyouthsummit.org to learn more.

Follow Champions for Youth on social to stay connected between episodes and explore resources shared by youth-serving leaders nationwide.

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Have feedback or a topic you’d like us to cover? Submit your ideas at vfhy.org/podcast — we’d love to hear from you.

Transcript

C.J. Stermer (01:00)
Hi Mary, thanks so much for joining me today. I it.

Mary Sanders (01:02)
Hi CJ,

thanks for having me.

C.J. Stermer (01:04)
we talk a lot on the Champions Youth Podcast about the power of learning from others the importance of breaking down silos and listening to our youth and honestly forming some new partnerships, right? Those things are very important in our work. And we have our Champions for Youth Summit coming up May 4th through 6th, where we try to provide this whole one-stop shop to get all these ideas together, provide some networking and be able to learn.

from other people in our industry. And we had the pleasure of having you attend the summit in previous years. And so I'm excited to learn a little bit more about what that experience was like for you and some of the things that you got out of that. what motivated you to even get into this field and to do this public health work.

Mary Sanders (01:43)
I have been working in international public health and more recently domestic public health for several years. I initially started my career working internationally, first with the Peace Corps. I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal.

And then when I came back, I got my master's in international development. And I went on to work at different international health programs, doing public health with both USDA and USDA, and then later on with the state department as well. So through that work, I've really developed a passion for working with low income and marginalized both internationally and then coming here.

C.J. Stermer (01:57)
wow.

Mary Sanders (02:22)
working with lot of immigrant groups that I've been working at through my work.

C.J. Stermer (02:25)
Wow, that's fascinating. You've done this big international work and now you're focusing local and you do nutrition education and focus on physical activity. I'm interested to hear sort of what what was the reason for that pivot?

Mary Sanders (02:36)
so I did international work for several years. and I took a break from it after a while, when I had my kids and then there was an opportunity that came about, to kind of do public health at a more local level. So about five years ago, I joined the healthy community action team, Arlington, or HCAT Arlington. And that kind of allowed me to concentrate a little bit more on.

improving access to healthy food, helping families make smart food choices, and then getting families to move more. So I was able to adapt some of the international work that I did to working at a more domestic and much more hyper local scale. And then also since having my own kids and understanding they're in school, I child in elementary school and middle school.

And just understanding that there's a really deep need for kids in all areas of our community to have opportunities to help improve their health and wellness outcomes.

C.J. Stermer (03:34)
could not agree more. know, we see that a lot and talk a lot about that here too, know, we can go broad and look at a national lens, which there are people that do that, but really focusing local and being able to create programs that help local communities. It's, it's, it's a lot of the same strategies. like, right. You're inspired by your own family and being able to see that at a local level. And, and some of these communities, especially marginalized communities, they really need that. So that's fantastic.

Mary Sanders (03:58)
it really influenced and inspired a lot of the work that I ended up working on in the first year plus of my job.

of my role in this job, including working with some affordable housing partners. We created at home kits for kids. We did different themes like physical activity and we provided dice and sidewalk chalk and ways that they could have the kids go outside and do sidewalk chalk obstacle courses. We did at home planting kits and different ways to

healthy eating and making healthy choices. I teach a class for immigrant moms and we've done classes where we take the moms out and I have them do obstacle courses with chalk and they have to do different things where they have to make a, you know, they have to

do something that's a cardio activity. They have to do something that's a bone strengthening exercise or that's a balance exercise. And they have to incorporate that into their sidewalk chalk and then I give them chalk and they get to take that home with their kids and they can do that at home.

C.J. Stermer (05:00)
That's so fun. It's it's not complicated work, right? It's still strategic, but It's very low cost, very simple stuff to just get kids moving to get families to think differently and keep them outside, right? It gets them outdoor time. That's that's really cool. you could do a lot with so little

Mary Sanders (05:01)
Yeah.

Right, yes.

C.J. Stermer (05:18)
It's super easy.

I love that.

So you've had the opportunity to come to the summit, share some of these ideas.

What drew you to the summit?

Mary Sanders (05:27)
as part of our Healthy Community Action Team grants, we get attendance for ourselves and another colleague or partner that works with our group. it's been a great way to invite different community members or

partners to the summit that I think can benefit from the information. particularly, I've appreciated being able to bring along school staff who work directly with students and their families. they may not have other opportunities to do some kind of professional development, attending conferences, things like that due to budget constraints. So.

I've been really excited to be able to bring colleagues along that may not have this opportunity to go because of other constraints that they may have for their organizations.

C.J. Stermer (06:09)
Right. So you were able to bring, you know, a decent number of people with you. the affordability must have been really helpful.

Mary Sanders (06:14)
Yes, that's been really great. And

There's different topic areas covered. it's been a really interesting mix of nutrition and substance abuse and tobacco prevention and obesity prevention. I often look at the catalog every time when I sign up for the summit when we have to make our decisions of which breakout sessions we're going to go to. And it's really hard to choose.

So I'm initially drawn to a lot of the sessions on nutrition education or physical health, but I also really appreciate some of the sessions that are focused on mental health because it really threads through all the work that I do, especially working with high-risk groups.

C.J. Stermer (06:54)
Right. So there's something for everyone. There's all kinds of topics that people can learn from and really break down those silos and work across the aisle.

we have a good number of people there that attend the summit. It's, you know, around 600 folks that are in a lot of these topic areas. Did you find that it was easy for you to network with those folks? Were you able to meet people easily?

Mary Sanders (07:14)
Yeah, there's a lot of different opportunities, both for the breakfast and lunches. You can sit wherever you want. And so I've been able to meet different people at different tables, both through colleagues that work in Virginia and work in other areas of Virginia, live and work in Northern Virginia. And so

it's allowed me to meet people both within our state and other areas of the state where they may have different communities and interests in Virginia. And then also that there's other people in other states that come and to learn about the work that they do in their states and areas where there's

commonalities and where there's differences and see you know, get ideas for things that we can do in our area.

C.J. Stermer (07:56)
Right. I think that's important for folks to hear too, is that, you know, there's, it's in Virginia, there's a opportunity to learn locally, to learn statewide, but to also learn across the country. This isn't just for Virginians. It's an opportunity to really try and see how folks are replicating the work. Right. Obesity prevention and nutrition education isn't in a silo. It's not just happening in Virginia. It's happening around the country. So I really enjoy the fact that you're able to learn from people all over the place.

Mary Sanders (08:24)
Exactly.

C.J. Stermer (08:25)
Something the summit does that I personally like is we try and have youth actually attend, right? We talk about the importance of having youth at the table. Did you have an opportunity to engage with young people or I see the value of having them there?

Mary Sanders (08:39)
I definitely see the value because we can't make decisions affecting youth without youth voices. That's something that we're working on right now in our county. We're creating youth wellbeing we have really been very conscious about making sure that we're including and

elevating youth voices. And so that's something I appreciate about the summit, that the experience of youth and the work that they're doing in their communities to make a difference is really highlighted through both the breakout sessions and the main stage discussions. There's been some really dynamic, amazing youth that have been highlighted in the past that it's just, it's like, once you leave that session, you're like, this is so inspiring.

C.J. Stermer (09:23)
yeah, having those youth voices, I totally agree are important. Do you find that when you speak with them and hear from them that there is a desire for them to be involved and how that's been impacting the outcomes of the work that we do?

Mary Sanders (09:37)
Yes, I think, you know, that's been something that we've been working on is making sure that we have not just youth voices, but community voices. there could be a lot of decisions made about projects and plans and events that is planned by somebody who's is happening with youth or that would be beneficial to youth.

But without actually asking them or including them and having them have a seat at the table, you don't really know. And then also making sure that you have a variety of youth voices, because there can be something that's affecting and beneficial to one group of youth voices, but that doesn't mean that it's reaching everybody or impacting positively everybody. So making sure that you have a variety of voices.

C.J. Stermer (10:10)
Right.

Mary Sanders (10:24)
through a different stage from your community.

C.J. Stermer (10:28)
Right. Talk to me a little bit more about the programming and what you were seeing either on the main stage or even some of the breakouts.

How were you able to choose? What was the value there for you?

Mary Sanders (10:38)
Sure.

I've been really impressed with the caliber of the speakers within the breakout session and on the main stage. During breakfast and lunches, And I found the speakers that have been presenting at the summit have been really dynamic speakers. They've really had an impact on the attendees and they've really show their passion for

what they do in their own lives and the work that they do in their communities.

I remember there was an author a couple summits ago who wrote Fentanyl Inc. And I just, learned so much about the...

origins and the evolution of the drug. And he was a really engaging and fantastic speaker. was also, yes, it was great. Yes. I was blown away. Like I learned so much from that book and really made me think differently about how the fentanyl crisis has taken over this country and the impact that it's had on everybody.

C.J. Stermer (11:18)
Were you able to read that book? Did you read that book? Cause the book was fantastic.

Mary Sanders (11:34)
Another speaker that I remember from last summit, he was the founder of Harlem Grown. And it was very inspiring to hear how he has really pulled the youth up in his community. And he really sees the future of this program, not as

as him as the owner, but as the kids being the owner and really passing the torch be able to help families in Harlem and the families and the students be able to improve their access and education of healthy food. And he's really made that a very youth centered focus.

C.J. Stermer (12:10)
he was really cool. That program that he's created in New York City, Harlem and Grown was really cool. He wrote a children's book and I actually purchased that children's book where he teaches and talks about that experience in there. It's a really cute book. I read that to my niece sometimes, so she's pretty young. it's, know, inspiring her play in the dirt and learn about how foods are fun. And yeah, it's really, really

Mary Sanders (12:20)
Yeah. It's such a great book.

sure. Yeah.

Yeah. There was one that was a really memorable session. And there was a researcher who was presenting her data. And she had done research into the marketing of sugar sweetened beverages and how that marketing is skewed into different communities of color. So she.

showed in her research that the marketing of beverages that have the highest concentration of sugar are marketed in communities of color.

It really stuck with me and deepened my understanding of the challenges that at-risk communities in making healthy choices and the strikes that they have against them in terms of access and knowledge of healthy choices.

C.J. Stermer (13:15)
You bring up a really good point a lot of speakers come with data. It's very evidence-based strategies that they're doing in their communities. It's not just, here's an idea. It's no, there here's data. It's supporting not only the reason we're doing it, but supporting the outcomes as well. And what the data is telling us. one of the ones that I very vividly remember

is a main stage speaker that presented how different public health concerns like tobacco usage were impacting the LGBT community, which I'm very proudly a member of. And I remember speaking on the main stage after her session about how impactful that was for me because I hadn't seen a lot of discussion specifically about my community and actually presenting data that were specific to that community.

I actually remember feeling a little emotional about it because that meant so much to me to see, wow, I didn't know things were still that bad.

talk to me a little bit about the key takeaways you got. What were some of the outcomes based on the session? Were you able to take any of that back home with you? And how did that change your

Mary Sanders (14:21)
So yeah, one of the key takeaways for me is being able to go to the summit and look not just in the topics that I would normally be drawn to, but also in the topics that kind of intersect with the work that I do. So things like tobacco prevention and drug prevention and mental health, particularly.

C.J. Stermer (14:42)
mental health.

Mary Sanders (14:43)
There's no way to address health education without addressing mental health. They're very intertwined, they're very correlated, and you can't address public health and health education without addressing mental has really helped with some of the sessions at the summit.

is being able to look beyond just the nutrition education and the physical activity programs that I work on and bring in elements of other aspects of health and help broaden and improve the work that I'm doing and the programs that I bring to families and students.

C.J. Stermer (15:18)
intersectionality is so important. We can't work in vacuums. There's a whole child involved here. There's a whole young person that deals with multiple issues and there's all sorts of upstream and downstream effects of that. That's such a really good point. I'm glad the summit was, uh, it was able to really bring that home for you.

Did your approach change in some of the work you were doing?

Mary Sanders (15:39)
I think in how I approach my planning and the topics that I cover for especially the nutrition education programs that I offer, it's really helped me think about how I'm presenting the material that I'm presenting, the topics that I cover, and how I teach that content to families.

especially those that are marginalized because there's so many different things that are happening in their lives that affect their ability to make choices about their own food and nutrition. And there's so many inputs that come into that. And it gave me a really a deeper understanding of how to consider other factors that are happening.

that's not just a black and white decision of I'm gonna choose this fruit or I'm gonna choose this candy bar. There's so many other elements that go into it and the summit has really broadened that perspective for me.

C.J. Stermer (16:37)
That's great. That's really, really great to hear.

Why should folks attend? How

we really emphasize the value and why people in our industry should attend the summit?

Mary Sanders (16:48)
Yeah, I think that the summit has really, really helps empower attendees to think outside the box. There's a lot of different sessions that are related to a broad spectrum of health topics that can appeal to a wide variety of organizations and governments and nonprofits and schools and individuals. And it really helps centralize a lot of things that need to be changed in working with youth.

C.J. Stermer (17:05)
Right.

Mary Sanders (17:14)
to create that positive change that's both youth-centric and youth-led. some really inspiring people that are attending the summit, and it really helps to hear from them and the work that they're doing to create effective change in their communities.

And there's just so many good takeaways that are actionable that you can take away and be able to implement into your communities, implement into your schools, implement into your programs that make them better.

C.J. Stermer (17:44)
Very good points. empowering folks to think outside of the box. Hear from youth. We are actually getting young people involved in the impact the work is having on their communities and the networking and tangible takeaways. like how I think it's important that you mentioned that is we could take things home to actually improve the work that we're doing and to, to motivate more impactful change. Mary.

I love hearing about your experience. I'm so glad that you see a lot of value and it's changed the way that you approach and think differently about your work. I'm very excited to see you at the next one. Coming up May 4th through 6th in Reston, Virginia, Check out the championsforyousummit.org to register to get involved. You all must attend. Mary, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts today and your experience. It was really nice talking to you and for joining me today. I really appreciate

Mary Sanders (18:14)
I know.

C.J. Stermer (18:30)
time.

Mary Sanders (18:30)
you so much for having me. I really really appreciate it I was a great experience to be able to talk about my experience with the summit and I look forward to The summit in just a few short months and I look forward to seeing you there