Summer Internship Program

Organization's Mission:

The Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health’s (ICAH) mission is to promote a positive approach to adolescent sexual health and comprehensive support for young parents. ICAH believes that reproductive freedom for adolescents must encompass the freedom to prevent pregnancy and disease through contraception and accurate information, the freedom to terminate a pregnancy, and the freedom to bring a pregnancy to term and parent. ICAH sees social justice work to promote reproductive rights as an integral part of a broader human rights movement and knows that this movement has an opportunity to broaden its sphere of influence by aligning current work on HIV/AIDS, poverty, and oppression. In all of its work, ICAH focuses on serving marginalized adolescent groups, including youth of color, low-income youth, LGBT youth, and young parents. ICAH’s goals include contributing to enhancing youth as leaders, increasing access to sexual health care, increasing access to comprehensive sex education, and promoting comprehensive support for pregnant and parenting youth.

ICAH’s work is informed by research into best practices, which suggests that the most effective way to ensure that policy and practice address the needs of youth is to engage them directly in the process. ICAH partners directly with marginalized youth who have the most at stake on these issues. With them, ICAH advances supportive policies and works to improve discriminatory policies that inhibit access to improved health, education and quality of life. ICAH is also developing an anti-oppressive organizational structure that embraces grassroots social development, active participation, acceptance of diversity and difference, and the necessity for action. The ultimate goal is to facilitate meaningful participation of youth at all levels, including governance, and develop a model for youth leadership in social change.