PATCH Program

🤩 love to hear it!

We really do LOVE working with teens (and clearly our passion and excitement is evident 🤣).

But we also hold such a special place in our 💚💙 for the people trying to figure out how to meaningfully include teens in their work.

Because there really is no “one way.” It depends on the work, the org, the teens...there's truly SO many things to consider!

Sometimes it’s just nice to have someone to ask questions, validate, nudge, and make space for some “tangible, action-focused ideas and brainstorming.” 😉

PATCH Madison Enrichment this week was 🫰!

One of our fellow PATCHies gave an EpiPen Demo (👏 Urvi for sharing your personal experience and expertise!) followed by a visit from PATCH HQ Director of Youth Engagement, Erica. She does such an awesome job helping us understand why some topics (like, sexuality 😳) can be SO hard to talk about...

That's PATCH for ya: creating space to learn, ask questions, and have the conversations.

PS. If you ever wondered, a mashed potato bar is a solid teen meal option. 10 POUNDS of potatoes...gone! To say it was a hit miiiiggghhhtt just be an understatement. 🥔😂

Throwback Thursday 🎉 2022–2023

Dear 12-year-old PATCH,

Okayyy, look at you growing into yourself. 🥰

After that massive growth spurt, you were starting to figure out who you were. And you were getting pretty comfortable in your new big-kid shoes. Particularly in your home state of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin PATCH kept rockin' with 5 in-person and 3 virtual, statewide programs. Almost 100 PATCHies throughout the state PATCHin' and doing their thing.
Workshops. Consulting sessions. Youth advocacy. Published (yet again!) another article about PATCH impacts.

But, deep deep down... you could feel something starting to change.

Love,

15-year-old PATCH

We really, really love getting asked to bring teen educators into professional training programs. The combo just makes sense. 🥰

"So informative and engaging!"

"This was a GREAT learning experience!"

"This group was really insightful for me, even as a parent of a newly 13-year-old & navigating his responsibility in his healthcare and privacy"

Yep. It was great. 🥲

Huge thanks to Madison College School of Health Sciences - Occupational Therapy Assistant Program for being such a great audience for our newly trained, first-timer PATCH teen educators.

And just like that, PATCH Madison is officially in full swing with their first PATCH for Health Care Professionals workshop in the books! 🎉
_________

Interested in working with our PATCH teens?! (uh, yeah!)

🔗 in bio to request a workshop or consulting session!

17 (SEVENTEEN! 🙌) mental health mini-grant proposals submitted by WI PATCHies this year. And, 4 of our WI PATCH teams also opted in. All are being funded!

We've got solo projects, partner projects, small groups and even teams. The spread of ideas 👏

So excited to have our kick-off call this week to talk through all the logistics (logging hours, submitting expenses, yada yada) and get these projects ready to roll and come to life before May 2027!

Wood County (WI) - you lucky ducks 🦆!

You’ve got a solid group of PATCHies ready to give you (yeah, you!) honest, real deal experiences, thoughts and feedback of today’s teens. at being teens 🤗

Reach out to Pamela if you got questions, wanna chat, or just learn more about what they’re up to!

Congratulations to our 5 new PATCH Teen Consultants! If you or your organization are looking for feedback from youth, we’re here to help. Welcome to the team teens! Contact our PATCH Coordinator for more information. [email protected]

Throwback Thursday 🎉 2021–2022

Dear 11-year-old PATCH,

🤯 What a massive growth spurt.

You hit adolescence and really started to spread your wings. Particularly in your home state of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin PATCH and statewide reach officially became a thing.

5 regional in-person PATCH programs.
3 (three!) virtual, statewide PATCH teams.

Like, okay, "big kid". Really starting to showcase your confidence in being the state's go-to for teen engagement.

And then you went and hosted a statewide PATCH symposium, bringing adolescent health professionals and PATCHies together to co-present on teen health issues. Professionals brought their content expertise. PATCHies brought their teen expertise. A pretty solid combo, if you ask me. 😉

And, if that wasn't enough, you decided to tack on a summer program focused on teen voice in the continued COVID-19 response. Hot shot. 🤣 .

You were hosting, partnering, participating, presenting, publishing(!) in some pretty cool local and national spaces.

You really went for it.

Love,
15-(well, almost 16)-year-old PATCH

Our statewide WI PATCHies just had a meeting with ican4all to talk alllll about FPOS (➡️ Family Planning Only Services)!

Chatting about different types of insurance, who can use FPOS, what FPOS even is, and what all of this means for teens trying to get health care.

And! our PATCHies have been diving in, sharing what teens need, expect, and experience in family planning clinics. at being teens.

So yeah, we’re learning from each other (which is kind of the whole point, isn’t it?! 😏)

Fun fact: We don’t get the whole PATCH HQ team together in person very often.

[Virtually? Almost every week. In person? Maaaayyyybe every other month?!]

But yesterday was one of our “Madison” days. 🥰

We got to hang out. Talk work. Talk life. Roses, thorns, and buds (yes, classic PATCH move).

It’s just so helpful for us to take the time to catch up and figure out ways to better work together.

Especially since our PATCH jobs are SO very different from one another (not to mention having a solid team of foxes, owls, sharks, and turtles 🙃).

We're turning 16 sooooonnnnnn!!! 🥰

And in typical PATCH fashion, we're going all in. Putting our party clothes* on and throwing ourselves a little celebration.

(after all, we're of driving age now, you know)

Save the date:
October 14, 2026.

We're so, SO excited!

*party clothes = vintage. of the era. glam. sparkles. prom. you do you.

(🔗 in bio)