WCPO: UC empowers teens to address opioid crisis
UC professor Farrah Jacquez helps high school students conduct research on local drug use to come up with better intervention strategies
WCPO-Channel 9 examined a new University of Cincinnati program that is helping high school students learn more about drug use among their peers.
UC associate professor of psychology Farrah Jacquez is working with two Cincinnati-area high schools to steer student-led research into drug dependency.
The program, called Youth Built Change, was funded with a grant from the National Institutes of Health. Students worked on eight different projects. Some conducted surveys on drug use among middle schoolers to understand the scope of the issue and come up with more effective intervention strategies, Jacquez told WCPO.
"Their lived experience is really what's going to help us solve problems," Jacquez said.
Students presented their results at the end of the first year of the five-year project.
UC psychology professor Farrah Jacquez, right, is overseeing a program called Youth Built Change that gets students involved in community health issues. Photo/Andrew Higley/UC Creative Services
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