Medical Education at Harvard

Boston-based Community Service Programs

COMMUNITY SERVICE

The mission of the Community Service Program is to encourage, foster and support medical and dental students' participation in a continuum of community-based projects and to make service an integral part of medical education. This is accomplished through:

Giving students the knowledge and skills necessary to work in community settings by providing information, training, mentoring and other resources

Providing funding for students interested in helping sustain existing community-based projects

Deepening students� knowledge and understanding of civic engagement and

Working with the Division of Service Learning to develop and expand curricular service opportunities.

Based on a number of principles, the program (1) acknowledges the importance of understanding the community�s and patient�s perspective, experience and culture, (2) helps create collaborative, sustainable partnerships with community agencies, and (3) the belief that community service can be part of a larger agenda on the part of health professional schools to reduce/eliminate health disparities.

The Office of Enrichment Programs funds students to do yearlong or summer projects in the Boston area through a competitive application process. Students can create new projects or take over existing ones. Ten to 15 students are funded annually.

Funding Information

The Office of Enrichment Programs provides funding to students interested in working in community settings in the greater Boston area. (Currently, the Community Service Program is only able to fund Boston-based projects due to limited funding.) Students must enter a competitive application process to receive funding. The application is requested, in part, to give students the experience of writing a brief grant proposal � a skill often required for health care professionals working in community settings. Typically, about 10 � 15 are funded annually.

Students may choose to coordinate an already existing project (preferred) or develop a new project. HMS is proud of its track record with community agencies and works hard with its partners to help fill gaps in services. We currently have about ten sustained projects, some of which have been in existence for over ten years. Students interested in developing new projects are scrutinized carefully for a clearly justified, value-added contribution to the community served.

Students receive a stipend of $2000 for yearlong, part-time projects and $3000 for summer, full-time projects and are expected to work a minimum of 200 and 300 hours respectively.

Additional Information:

Preference for funding is given to multi-year, ongoing projects. New projects will be considered with a preference for sustainability and the conduction of a thorough needs assessment.

All applications for funding must show evidence of partnership and sustainability.

Students may apply for funding alone or in groups, but must share the stipend.

Students who apply for and receive both a Schweitzer Fellowship (see www.schweitzerfellowship.org) as well as an OEP stipend may only receive a total of $200 and are expected to fulfill the requirements of both programs.

Examples of Existing Projects:

B.A.B.I.E.S. (Boston Area Babies Initiative to Ensure Success) - trains medical students to mentor pregnant girls and are then matched with them throughout their pregnancy.

Bridging the Gap � is a service-learning project in conjunction with MGH/Chelsea Health Center that matches students with refugee and immigrant families.

Girl Power � is an after school program, for girls ages 11 � 14, that seeks to interest them in science and provides roles models for inner city girls. (A spin-off program entitled GALS [Girls Achieving in Life and Science] targets girls from 8 � 10 years old.)

Harvard Helping HAVEN �is a domestic violence program, usually looking for one student, coordinated out of the MGH domestic violence program and sited at MGH/Revere Health Center.

H.E.A.L.T.H. NOW! (Helping Education and Literacy through Health) � is a health literacy project that focuses on teaching health in ESOL settings and medical interpreting.

Kids with Asthma Can Swim � is a partnership that provides health education about asthma to families and kids and helps children learn to swim.

Operation Mouthguard � is a dental school program that provides kids with oral hygiene education and provides mouthguards free of charge to kids involved in sports.

PHACE (Prevention Health Awareness and Choice through Education) � is a health education program that provides training in sexual health and other issues to middle school students.

Project Respite Care � trains students about disabilities and matches volunteers with families with kids with special health care needs.

Future Investigators � is a science program for middle schoolers who pick a topic to study and then develop a hypothesis driven research project with HMS volunteers.

Healthy Bodies/Healthy Souls - is a faith-based, health education project.

Choosing a Project

Contact the OEP and utilize the wide range of resources. Staff and faculty are available to brainstorm ideas, link students with agency staff and help find faculty mentors. A library is available with information about local neighborhoods, program planning and other materials. Drawers full of information on local agencies await you! The OEP database and weekly e-newsletter have a plethora of opportunities.

First year students should utilize the fall semester to survey project options. Get to know current project coordinators who are looking for someone to take over. Find these students through word of mouth, emails, at the Student Activities Fair first thing in the fall, and through the wide variety of student groups through the Student Council. Students can also get to know local agencies and their staff by meeting with the Community Service Program Manager for suggestions, attending OEP-sponsored workshops and seminars, talking with fellow students, and visiting organizations.

Requirements for Student Coordinators

Being a Coordinator for an ongoing service project entails a variety of roles and responsibilities that HMS takes very seriously. Coordinators are project and community service leaders and should be role models for all students interested in service. Coordinators organize, manage and direct all program activities, as well as communicate among all the stakeholders: agency staff, administrators, faculty and students involved in the project, as well as with the OEP/DSL when necessary. Below are some of the coordinators� responsibilities. A complete job description is in the Student Coordinator Handbook and available in the history book (see below).

Coordinators must work with a Faculty Mentor from HMS and a Site Supervisor from the partner agency and meet with them on a regular basis.

Coordinators help supervise other student volunteers (when appropriate) to insure that anything needed for the project is completed.

Coordinators should contact their Site Supervisor or Faculty Mentor if experiencing any problems.

Coordinators must write a final report (at the end of the calendar year for yearlong projects and in September for summer projects).

Coordinators should submit an abstract and poster for Soma Weiss Research Day (optional).

New in 2006/2007: Coordinators must keep a history book for the project that will get passed down annually to new coordinators. (For ongoing projects only), a binder will be created with all the pertinent information needed for the project. This represents the living history of the project. Included should be the Student Coordinator Handbook; any data that has been collected; names and contact information at the site; any IRB information and applications; any evaluations or needs assessments; any written reflections; the annual final report; any grant proposals written and any budgets.