A crew of College of Houston college students is actively addressing the wants of Houston’s marginalized communities.
Since launching the inaugural HEALTH-RCMI Scholar Cadre in 2022, these college students have devoted a yr to embark on a mission to have interaction, serve and uplift the Third Ward neighborhood. With the steerage of Dr. LeChauncy Woodard, M.D., M.P.H., the director of the neighborhood engagement core at HEALTH-RCMI, their method to neighborhood involvement emphasizes listening, cultural humility and long-term sustainability.
Their method’s cornerstone is actively listening to the neighborhood’s wants. The objective is to create options that handle neighborhood wants and may be maintained, avoiding the pitfalls of initiatives that falter when priorities shift or funding turns into unsure.
“Reasonably than the scholars saying, ‘Properly, we have now this concept to assist the neighborhood, let’s exit and do that challenge,’ we have now them actively listening to the neighborhood they serve,” she stated. “We wish to know the wants of our neighborhood companions and establish the challenges earlier than implementing methods for options.”
One notable achievement of the Scholar Cadre has been their partnership with Boynton Chapel Methodist Church underneath the steerage of Pastor Linda Davis. The scholars recognized a necessity expressed within the Third Ward: delivering wholesome meals and COVID-19 provides to deal with the problems of meals insecurity.
“College of Houston sits inside the Third Ward neighborhood. The neighborhood surrounds us daily,” Woodard stated. “We wish to be a trusted entity, the place our neighborhood members accomplice with us in order that we will higher reply to the broader well being and wellbeing of the neighborhood.”
Final yr, the scholar cadre began with 4 folks. Now, it has grown to 6.
Woodard stated the work is an “iterative course of” that takes ongoing engagement to craft a solution-based technique. Throughout the challenge at Boynton Chapel Methodist Church, the scholars realized Davis had common meals pantries. They requested themselves, “Who’re the people who can’t come to church?” and “How can they be served?”
Woodard stated sustainability is a essential consideration for the Scholar Cadre. They purpose to make sure that the advantages they supply proceed with out interruption.
“We don’t wish to present a useful resource that’s valued after which once we don’t have funding or when our college students graduate and transfer on, that we aren’t capable of proceed the place we left off,” Woodard stated. “That is the vital a part of the trust-building course of.”
Woodard’s ardour for neighborhood collaboration is deeply rooted in her upbringing in Houston’s Acres Houses neighborhood. Her dedication to working with underserved communities is motivated by private experiences of well being disparities in her household. She has witnessed people from totally different communities affected by treatable circumstances at a younger age and strives to make a distinction in these underserved populations.
“The Acres Houses neighborhood is likely one of the most medically underserved communities within the Houston and Harris County space, so the work I do as a medical skilled means a lot to me,” she stated. “It is a full circle second that I hope the scholars may also really feel sooner or later of their careers.”
