There are over 70,000 residents in Ward 8, the poorest area of Washington, DC and along with Ward 7, it's most geographically remote. Approximately 36% of the Ward 8 population consists of children and youth, 18 years or younger. Children in the District of Columbia are at greater risk for poorer health and life outcomes than children in other parts of the United States. This is especially true in Ward 8, where poverty, violence, and poor access to health and social services plague its residents. Despite the presence of a variety of community based health facilities in Ward 8, the adolescent health data indicates that something more or different is needed to address teen health needs and access to care. Through the generous support and funding of the Horning Family Foundation, the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services has engaged young people from Ward 8 to be part of a Youth Health Coordinating Council (YHCC). The role of the YHCC has been to discuss and research the health issues that most concern young people in Ward 8 and to identify available community health resources that might respond to these issues. The YHCC has undertaken several activities in the past year. The students identified the unmet health needs of teens in Ward 8: they identified existing community health services and reviewed their web sides, and developed the key criteria that they believe make health services more "teen friendly." An important activity of YHCC this winter was the development of a "secret health clinic shopper" project to evaluate the accessibility of Ward 8 health centers to area teens. The YHCC members developed a phone call script that began with a request to make an appointment with a doctor for a sports physical after school hours and followed up with questions about hours, services, payment, confidentiality and proximity of the center to mass transit. [Funding for this paper was provided by the Horning Family Fund.]