\Each year, schools and students around Kansas City participate in KC Healthy Kids’ annual ‘I Am Here’ Youth Advocacy photo contest.  The contest encourages students to examine the health, or lack of health, in their own communities and to document their findings in photos.  This contest is a great lesson where students learn the importance of their voice in the health of their community.  Schools compete with other area schools to win money to address the health issue within their community.

A number of our Schoolyard Garden members have been recipients of past ‘I Am Here’ awards, including Academy for Integrated Arts and Stony Point North Elementary, which both used funds from their award to build raised beds in their Schoolyard Garden.

KC Healthy Kids is holding a free training on Tuesday, May 9 to provide more information to interested teachers on how they can bring this awesome Youth Advocacy program to their students. The training will be held from 4-6 p.m. at the Kauffman Foundation Conference Center. Check out the I AM HERE TEACHER TRAINING to learn more information about the program and register