What is a school-based health center? – by Dynasty Winters

Dynasty Winters is participating in the Youth Track at the 2012 National School-Based Health Care Convention. She is a student from Wake County, North Carolina.

Two years ago, before my involvement with Youth Empowered Solutions (YES!) and the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care (NASBHC), if you would have asked me what a school-based health center (SBHC) was I would have tried my best to answer you. Today, if you ask me that question, my answer will be, “the solution.”

SBHCs are solutions to problems for young people all over the United States. Not only do they help monitor chronic illnesses, but they also keep students in schools. Most importantly, SBHCs help increase school performance. As a student, I know how hard it is to catch up on work that you miss, especially at my school where each class is 90 minutes long. So why aren’t there any SBHCs in my community? In Wake County? In Raleigh, NC? When there are over 50 across the state? Great question!

SBHCs are a wonderful resource for students and the community. Unfortunately, people in my county are not blessed with the privilege of having a SBHC. That’s why we started Access to Health Care Team at YES! At YES!, we advocate for SBHCs in our community and across the state. We have trained more than 100 youth in our community on how to be advocates for SBHCs and we built support from people in the community through surveys, petitions, and a rally. It has been amazing to have the support from NASBHC in our local work and we are so excited to attend the 2012 Convention. My community is one of many who do not have any SBHCs. That’s unacceptable, especially when it is so beneficial to students everywhere.

We are passionate about school-based health care so we work hard to make sure every student can overcome social injustice. Author and motivational speaker, Steve Pavlina, says it best: "When you live for a strong purpose, then hard work isn’t an option. It’s a necessity."