Hi, all. 

My name is Bill Smith and I was privilege to be one of the committee
members on the Institute of Medicine's report, Health Literacy: A
Prescription to End the Confusion.  I have been doing health education,
health communication and social marketing for years and it was eye
opener to take a health literacy frame for the problems so many people
face in dealing with our health system.  

I got excited about doing something about it after the Committee ended
and we adapted a AED program called Youth Mapping to the Health Literacy
topic.  Youth Mapping was originally developed as a way to give high
school kids in disadvantaged settings the opportunity to develop
computer, public speaking and data collection skills.  

We worked with the IOM, Pinelas County Fla. and Harlem N.Y. to develop
a Youth Mapping of Health Literacy program.  There is information about
it on our web site www.aed.org under Youth programs if you are
interested in more details.  

Having youth present the problem to local hospital staff and community
leaders was a real eye opener and may be helpful as many of you look for
ways to make health literacy more real to decision-makers in your
community.  

Wm. Smith
Executive Vice President
Academy for Educational Development
1825 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20009

Organize policy until self-interest
does what justice requires.
Phone: 202-884-8750
Fax: 202-884-8752
e-mail: bsmith at aed.org