PATCH Program

17 (SEVENTEEN! 🙌) mental health mini-grant proposals submitted by WI PATCHies this year. And, 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)

Throwback Thursday 🎉 2020–2021

Dear 10-year-old PATCH,

"COVID times" were something. Weren't they?!

Launching this program year was ... interesting, to say the least.

The work was definitely different. (like, *REALLY* different).

But, the important stuff stayed the same.

You kept showing up as trusted adults for teens. Kept making space for their voices. Kept bringing their lived experiences and perspectives into conversations about what was happening and what teens needed.

Which, in the middle of all that weirdness, was preeetty cool.

(I mean, 👀 at this: https://www.patchprogram.org/covid19response )

Love,
15-year-old PATCH

Teen Response to Covid-19 | WI PATCH During this time of quarantine and social distancing, we've had some amazing conversations with all of you out there about how we can best support the adolescents and young adults in our programs. Unfortunately, there aren't many resources for working with and supporting youth right now, so we've d...

Teen apps for PATCH Northwoods are due Sept 14! 🤗

PATCH Youth Application PATCH Teen Educator – Northern Highland AHEC PATCH stands for Providers and Teens Communicating for Health. At PATCH, we believe that health care practices, programs, and policies should be developed with young people rather than just for them. In this program, we rely on YOU to be the expert and share what you know about being a teen, like: W...

A room full of PATCH Madison teens learning and chatting about MyChart with Molly and Aish from Epic Systems!

(you know, the laaarrrggeee healthcare software company 💻 that many of us use to navigate health care… they’re located right in our backyard!)

This is one of the (many!) things we 🫶 about PATCH: getting teens and adults from our community in the same space to learn, ask questions, share ideas, and connect about things that truly matter to teens' health and wellbeing.

And it happens twice a month! That regular time together gives our PATCH teams some structure, keeps everyone connected, and gives all of us a chance to keep learning too.

It’s these conversations (and simply time together) that make the rest of our work *that* much better.
💙💚

"But is virtual engagement really that effective?"
..uh, yeah. (If you do it "right.")

And when our WI Teen Consultants live all across WI, it's what we do.

Thankful for HEART Consulting, LLC for guiding us through a convo about disability justice this week and staying on 'til your kids' bedtimes to continue chatting about what it’s like to navigate the world with a disability. 🫶