Over 200 students from New Jersey and Boston came to New Haven July 25 to attend the first community forum hosted by The Substances and Sexual Health (SASH) Lab at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH). The forum, held at Yale New Haven Hospital’s Fitkin Amphitheater, aimed to bring together youths, community leaders, and activists to learn about the lab’s efforts to reduce youth substance use in urban communities.
The attendance was so large that the event had to be held in two sessions, in the morning and afternoon. Youth from various cities, including Boston, Newark, N.J., and East Orange, N.J., and participants from the SASH Lab youth program, attended the forum. Additionally, some parents joined to support their children and participated in tours of Yale University as part of the day’s activities.
The forum showcased the lab’s commitment to involving youth and community members as active participants in substance use prevention research. Among the attendees were 23 young students from New Jersey participating in the SASH Lab’s summer youth research program – a six-week intensive curriculum created by Ijeoma Opara and SASH Lab members, covering introductory topics to NJ teens around substance use prevention research, data science, machine learning, qualitative and quantitative analysis, and community partnerships.
Launching this community forum at Yale and seeing a room full of Black and brown teens sitting in a Yale auditorium, learning about ending addiction in their own communities, was incredibly moving. It represents a powerful step towards empowering these young minds to become leaders in public health.
Ijeoma Opara
Opara, associate professor of public health (social and behavioral sciences) and director of the SASH Lab, was enthused by the turnout for the event.
“Launching this community forum at Yale and seeing a room full of Black and brown teens sitting in a Yale auditorium, learning about ending addiction in their own communities, was incredibly moving,” she said. “It represents a powerful step towards empowering these young minds to become leaders in public health.”
The forum featured two panel discussions. It also featured videos showcasing highlights and testimonials from the lab’s summer youth program. The teens featured in the videos came from northern New Jersey, including Paterson and East Orange, the two cities where Opara conducts community-based participatory studies.
The first panel, moderated by lab member Nimisha Srikanth, MPH ’25 (social and behavioral sciences), featured several SASH Lab members, including Associate Director of Research Sitara Weerakoon, an associate research scientist in public health (social and behavioral sciences); Shreya Jadhav, MPH ’25 (social and behavioral sciences, global health); Lab Project Director Beatriz Duran Becerra, MPH ’22 (social and behavioral sciences, U.S. health justice); and post-graduate associate Catherine Mwai, MPH ’23 (social and behavioral sciences). They shared their motivations for joining the lab, described their current projects, and highlighted the rewarding experience of working with teens. The afternoon panel also featured New Jersey-based SASH lab members Kimberly Pierre, the lab’s associate director outreach; and Funcia Jean Louis, a research assistant and social media specialist.
“What was tremendously inspiring was seeing my lab members sit on a panel and share some of the reasons why they chose to work at The SASH Lab and what their work means to them,” Opara said. “It makes it so rewarding to me to see them becoming leaders in this space and inspiring the next generation.”
The second panel, moderated by Angelo Pinto, inaugural activist in residence at YSPH, included key SASH Lab community partners such as Horace Henry, director of the Department of Health & Human Services in East Orange; Ayinde Martin, logistics coordinator for the East Orange Department of Health & Human Services; Cristina Pagan, director of the Paterson Youth Services Bureau; Indira Castillo of the Paterson Youth Services Bureau; and LaDonna Johns, a representative and manager from the East Orange Mayor’s Office. This panel discussed their collaboration with the SASH Lab to understand substance use trends and prevention strategies in their cities and to encourage youth involvement in these efforts.
Henry talked about the importance of data and how community-level data makes a difference in creating solutions. He said he was thrilled to work with Opara and The SASH Lab on their new initiative to predict and prevent substance use disorders, as he sees it as a high priority in East Orange.
“Substance use rates among teens are getting higher, and without innovative solutions, we won’t see a difference,” Henry said. “I applaud Dr. Opara and her team on their efforts to not only conduct work in East Orange, but to get youth involved from the very beginning. This is what public health should be.”
Martin used the forum as an opportunity to launch the East Orange Teen Survey, which was developed with the support and collaboration of the SASH Lab team.
“A few months ago, I shared with Dr. Opara what some of the goals were for East Orange, which included launching a health survey,” he said. “Dr. Opara connected me with her associate director of research, Dr. Weerakoon, who met with me about how to use validated measures, and shared resources we have used to develop surveys. From that conversation, I used the resources to develop our own survey, and I thank Dr. Weerakoon and The SASH Lab for taking the time to support us in this way. I’m looking forward to more collaboration opportunities with them.”
Johns has been a longtime supporter of Opara and the SASH Lab. She said she was pleased to attend the forum at Yale, where she has come for Opara’s other initiatives, such as Black girls go to Yale. She also cited the partnership between the SASH Lab and East Orange’s Summer Work Experience Program (SWEP).
“I love coming to Yale and visiting the SASH Lab,” she said. “The kids love it, and I am so thrilled for this partnership between the SASH Lab and SWEP to ensure that students are exposed to public health and community health and learning how they will make a difference.”
Following the forum, East Orange Mayor Ted R. Greene had nothing but praise for the work Opara and her lab have done for his community.
“We were delighted to partner with Yale University and the SASH Lab to empower our students to raise their voices about substance abuse and how we can help reduce the stigma, increase awareness, and create a supportive environment for those at risk," he said. “My administration is committed to engaging our youth in solution-driven practices, and the multi-million grant received by Dr. Ijeoma Opara from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) allows us to translate our words into action with meaningful input from our East Orange youth.”
Opara thanked her community partners, especially, Jamila T. Davis, founder of The VIP Experience and co-founder of Be the Changemakers, who organized a majority of the youths’ attendance and made sure that students were able to attend the forum, have lunch, and go on tours.
“We are always so excited to partner with The SASH Lab to give youth from urban cities an Ivy League experience,” Davis said. “Our students are always welcome at Yale, thanks to the welcoming environment Dr. Opara and The SASH Lab have provided.”
“The SASH Lab community forum exemplifies the power of using youth and community voices to drive substance use prevention,” Opara said. “By involving young people as active contributors to research, the SASH Lab is paving the way for innovative and impactful public health solutions.”