Community Outreach Projects
If you are interested in learning more about any of these projects please e-mail or call us to set up a time to meet. Please do not contact these sites directly.
In-School Programs
HealthStart:
Medical students serve as one-to-one mentors for 11th-graders from Mercy Vocational High School (the only Catholic vocational high school in the United States), who are working towards becoming Certified Nursing Assistants. Medical students lead workshops on anatomy, physiological systems, and higher education. Groups meet alternately at the DUCOM campus and the Mercy Vocational school (located one-half mile from DUCOM) approximately 7 times through the fall semester. This project is for CEE credit. More details...
Health Promotion and Injury Prevention: Primary Grades 1 - 8:
The Health Promotion and Injury Prevention project teaches children basic health and safety practices in a fun, interactive, small group setting. Throughout the four-week program, students have the opportunity to work with children in first through sixth grades. A team of approximately 5 or 6 medical students work with one grade – small groups have one medical student with approximately 4-5 elementary school children. As with many CEE projects, your input and ideas are vitally important to keep the program fresh and new. A curriculum outline is available but the team needs to create an actual lesson plan for each session. Students must plan to attend orientation, training, and debriefing sessions. Community Site: Mifflin School, Conrad and Midvale Avenues. This project is for CEE credit. More details...
Next Step:
at Saul Agricultural High School
W. B. Saul is the largest agricultural high school in America and is home to the largest single-school FFA (Future Farmers of America) chapter in the world. Located only three-and-a-half miles from DUCoM, Saul has eight buildings on 130 acres. Through Next Step, Drexel medical students will serve as tutor/mentors, helping Saul students with math SAT preparation, study skills, career planning, and applications to college and scholarships. This project is for CEE and CHC credit. More details...
Reach Out, Educate, and Connect (REC):
The REC Project aims to build relationships between medical students and at-risk youth, and teach preventive healthcare through five interactive, discussion-filled sessions. Topics include drug and alcohol abuse, cigarettes, nutrition and healthy coping skills. Two teams of medical students will work with third-graders, and two teams will work with high-schoolers. We will bring those groups together for one or two sessions, for the teens to have the opportunity to teach the younger children. We will also schedule field trips to the DUCoM anatomy labs, so that the children and teens can learn about the brain through hands-on activities.
Science Explorers at Blankenburg:
Science Explorers is a seven-session program, in which first-year medical students lead hands-on, interactive science activities with at-risk youth. The goals of Science Explorers are to: 1. Engage underserved young people in asking “why questions;” 2. To help them ignite a passion for the world around them; and 3. To provide medical students with the opportunity to understand the connections between psychosocial factors and health. At Blankenburg Elementary School in West Philadelphia, Science Explorers brings medical students together with seventh graders. This project is for CEE credit. More details...
SEEPS:
Sexual Education Empowerment Program for Students. SEEPS is a 6-session program designed to teach ninth-grade high school students of Edison High School about sex and sexual health. Edison is located in North Philadelphia, close to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. Classes are held in English and Spanish, and one class is a special education class. To be eligible for SEEPS, students must attend a training session held in the fall. This project is for CEE credit. More details...
Out-Of-School Programs
Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education
Love 2 Serve Program
The Love 2 Serve program provides year-round tennis instruction, enrichment activities, homework help, a healthy meal and Life Skills training. In addition, a core group of 10-12 year olds from North Philadelphia are transported to the state-of-the-art Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis Center in East Falls twice each week for tennis and enrichment activities. Interested medical students will provide mentoring and lead interactive sessions on healthy living. More details...
Chamounix Equestrian Center
Work-to-Ride Program:
Chamounix Equestrian Center is a non-profit agency, located in West Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, providing programs for inner-city youth at risk. Children and teens involved in the Work-to-Ride program must maintain a decent grade-point average, and come to the Stables after school not only for horse-related activities, but for tutoring as well. Medical students will serve as tutors and mentors to youth. This project is for volunteers, as well as for CEE and CHC credit. More details...
Dignity Housing
In Germantown, one mile from the DUCOM campus, Dignity Housing offers two-year leases on transitional housing apartments to formerly homeless women and their children. Medical students matched with this project will work with the children and youth in the after-school program, providing tutoring and leadership. This project is for CEE and CHC credit. More details...
Reading for the Stars
Reading for the Stars pairs first-year medical students with students of Wissahickon Charter School, which is located around the corner from DUCoM, on Wissahickon Avenue. Each pair will meet for an hour at least once a week over the course of the 2008-09 school year, with the exception of holiday and exam weeks. During the hour, the two will read together. The medical student will always read at least one book or chapter to the child, and the child will practice reading to the medical student. This project is for CEE and CHC credit. More details...
Center for Grieving Children, Teens, and Families:
Located in North Philadelphia, on the campus of St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, the Center for Grieving Children, Teens, and Families provides support groups for family members who have lost a loved one. Medical students assist in the facilitation of support groups for children and teens. Students must commit to this program throughout the academic year. This project is for CEE credit. More details...
Mentoring Children of Purpose:
A program of People for People, Mentoring Children of Purpose is "designed to directly help children with incarcerated parents to live successful and productive lives." Interested students will be matched with youth (5 - 18 years old) living in nearby neighborhoods, who have at least one parent in prison. Students must be willing to spend about 4 hours per month with the child, and make a commitment of one year. More details...
Mentoring at Jane Addams Place:
Jane Addams Place of Lutheran Settlement House is a shelter for 29 homeless women and their children, located in West Philadelphia. Jane Addams Place provides a diverse group of programs for residents in order to assist families in overcoming barriers to stability and self-sufficiency, including Adult Educational Programs, Life-Skill Programs, Youth Programs, Housing Placement, and Referral Services. Medical students interested in mentoring will be paired with teens living in the shelter. More details...
Science Explorers at Althea Gibson Community Education and Tennis Center:
The Althea Gibson Center, located in the low-income neighborhood of North Philadelphia and serving a diverse population, offers a wide array of programs from tennis instruction to a chess club and book club, to a very popular graphic-arts program. All programs have the common goal of promoting healthy bodies and healthy minds, which explains the inclusion of tennis – a sport that has limitless fitness benefits, but also requires a great deal of strategy and skill. Medical students involved in CEE and CHC will be facilitating Science Explorers (see above description), leading science activities in the after-school program. More details...
St. Christopher’s Pediatric Play Group:
St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children is located at Erie and Front in North Philadelphia. Medical students provide a variety of activities and services to decrease the anxiety of children and their family members who must wait in the Emergency Room for treatment. Students must attend a training session before scheduling their four required times. Training sessions are held in late September and early January. This project is available for CEE credit. More details...
Culture/Language Programs
Health Education and Wellness at the Sisters of Saint Joseph Welcome Center:
The SSJ Welcome Center, located in the Kensington area of North Philadelphia, is dedicated to helping immigrants gain self-sufficiency. Medical students will provide a series of health education sessions with newcomers. The ability to speak Spanish is helpful, but not necessary. This project may be for volunteers or may be used for credit for CEE and CHC. More details...
Medical Interpretation:
Bilingual students, fluent in Spanish, can be medical interpreters for patients and family members at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. Those who are fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese can interpret for patients at the Chinatown Clinic. These experiences will provide an opportunity for students to learn, from a holistic point of view, about the issues related to the provision of healthcare for a rapidly growing immigrant population in this country including: health-care for un- and under-insured, health education, language barriers, and financial and legal matters. This project may be for volunteers, or may be used for credit for CEE and CHC. For more details about Spanish medical interpretation... For more details about medical interpretation at Chinatown Clinic...
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Other
Know Your Rights:
Know Your Rights will be a 5 – 6 session program focused on behaviors and resources for living a healthy life. It will be geared towards women living in Philadelphia’s low-income communities, and will be led by an interdisciplinary team of medical and law students of Drexel University. We are proposing that the workshop be coordinated at one or two different sites during the 2008-09 Academic Year. While the workshop will have a planned curriculum, there will be enough flexibility to shift the focus or add in different topics, based on the setting and requests of the participant group. Student preparatory sessions, attended jointly by medical and law students, will be held in the fall, and the groups will be led throughout the academic year.
Elder Projects
CEE Elder Projects will be coordinated with the P&P Geriatrics Experience course.
All students fulfill the Geriatrics Experience Project. A cohort of students fulfill their CEE requirement through participation in an Elder Project. This creates an opportunity for a combined, longitudinal and enriched experience for students.
Students, in pairs, will be assigned to visit with seniors who are living in the community and who participate in one of the community programs with which OCE has a relationship. OCE will work with the community programs to identify willing seniors.
Students will visit seniors for a total of 7 visits, throughout the academic year. The sessions will be designed to meet the learning goals of both GE and CEE. These sessions will focus on the social determinants of health and illness experienced by the senior. Students will interview seniors in a way that supports reflection on the effects of: neighborhood, culture, race, education, income, social support. Students will be asked to interview at least one of the senior’s caregivers. For one session, students will accompany the senior to the community program. Students will submit journal entries for each visit.
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