PUBLIC OUTREACH

Each year Bay Area Schweitzer Fellows work as a group to conduct public outreach activities. These activities aim to:

• Educate students in health-related fields, professionals, and/or the general public about the nature and seriousness of current, local health disparities and unmet health needs;

• Strengthen existing links among the Schweitzer Fellows Program, community agencies and health professional schools, and site and academic mentors;

•  Identify new community organizations and other partners that the Schweitzer Fellows Program may collaborate with in the future;

• Help Fellows develop leadership, organizational, and team building skills useful in future public education activities; and

• Provide Fellows with an experience of collaborative and shared responsibility within a small interdisciplinary group..

2007-2008

The first Bay Area Schweitzer Fellows Health Career Fair was hosted by the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco (B&GC) and organized by the Bay Area Schweitzer Fellows Program. It was held at the Excelsior Clubhouse in San Francisco on April 10, 2008.  The Schweitzer Fellows set up kid-friendly, interactive stations to show the children what it means to be a health professional. The feedback we received was so overwhelmingly positive that the Boys & Girls Clubs committed to an ongoing partnership with the Bay Area Schweitzer Fellows Program.

For photos from the Health Career Fair, visit the Bay Area Schweitzer Fellows Program's Photo Album.

Click here for an ASF news item about the Health Career Fair.

2008-09

Bay Area Schweitzer Fellows Health Career Fair

The second annual Bay Area Schweitzer Fellows Health Career Fair was held on Saturday, February 28, 2009 at the Think College Now Elementary School in Oakland, CA. The day was developed by five Schweitzer Fellows in collaboration with the Think College Now Family Resource Center, UCSF’s Children’s Health Hut and five Fellows from the 2008-09 class.

The goal was to provide a full day of health-related activities and health career information to a low-income urban community. Located in the heart of West Oakland, Think College Now -- an elementary school dedicated to promoting college access for low income students -- provided the Fellows with the perfect site and access to their target demographic.

Think College Now's student demographics are: 
255 students K-5 
73% Latino
20% African American
7% Asian-American 
68% English-language learners 
91% living at or near the poverty line 

Thanks to the work of 114 hard working volunteers and the participation of more than 300 children and parents who attended and enjoyed all the day had to offer, this event was a huge success. 

Click here to view a poster with pictures and information about the event.

Seed to Belly

Seed to Belly was an interactive outdoor/indoor environmental program developed by Schweitzer Fellows Thomas Azwell, Sona Bekmezian, Patricia Foo, Karen Fung, and Tanner Zane in collaboration with Lindsay Bare, Dylan Bigby, Ryan Carney, Tara Christian and Nicholas LaBounty, members of G-Rock Certified, an environmental consulting group in the Bay Area. 

Seed to Belly was inspired by a desire to utilize the educational resources available at the newly created Rooftop Garden at Glide Memorial Church, which is located in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, a neighborhood notorius for its high poverty rate. The goal was to teach K-5 children in the Glide Afterschool Program where their food comes from and how it affects their health and the health of their environment.  

The event took place on Friday, February 27, 2009. Children from the Glide Memorial Afterschool Program were pre-registered and filled out permission slips, photo waivers and food allergy waivers in advance. The 2-hour program was divided between outdoor and indoor activities; the first half was out on the Rooftop Garden and the second half took place downstairs on the 4th floor of the Glide building. 

Upon arrival at the Garden, the Fellows introduced the children to the program, took group photographs, and divided them into two smaller groups (named Fruits and Vegetables) for ease in handling.  The groups were alternately rotated through four different stations: Seed Propagation and Planting, Harvesting, Pest Control and Composting. The children spent about 20 minutes at each station, engaging in educational instruction and hands-on activities. For example, at the Seed Propagation and Planting station, the children were exposed to the different types of seeds and how they are dispersed in nature.

They then had a chance to plant their own seeds in small planters with soil and worm castings, which they could then take home with them to care for and cultivate.
In the Harvesting station, the children learned about the nutrients plants need to grow and the threats that they encounter. They had the opportunity to pull out weeds around the garden crops (which they then composted!) and then individually harvested leaves of Swiss chard.  In the Pest Control station, they were taught about common garden pests and the toxicity of many common chemical pesticides. They then had the opportunity to spray the plants in the garden with soap nut spray, an organic pesticide.

In the Composting station, the children learned about the importance of composting in waste reduction and plant fertilization. They were able to handle the earthworms in the vermicompost bins and were also given a baggie of worm castings to take home and use as fertilizer.

At the culmination of the Seed portion of the program, the Fellows took the children downstairs for the Belly portion. After making sure all the children had washed their hands, we rotated them between the Green Smoothie activity and the Fruit Bar activity, which were designed to expose the children to easy-to-make, nutritious, all-natural and readily available alternative snack food options. 

At the Green Smoothie station, the children helped mix together kiwis, bananas, apples, pears and, to their initial chagrin but later delight, spinach leaves and the Swiss chard they harvested in the Garden. The fruits and greens were then blended with ice and water and voila! green smoothies.

At the Fruit Bar station, the children learned that processed snacks are high in sugar and fat but not vitamins and nutrients. They then had the opportunity to make all-natural, delicious fruit bars using dried fruits, nuts and seeds. 

All food and paper wastes were added to the vermicompost bins at the completion of the event.  At the end of the day, these two activities were the favorites. 

Because the Fellows also aimed to inspire the children to go green in their use of materials and their management of organic wastes, they distributed reusable cloth napkins, courtesy of G-Rock volunteer Tara Christian. They also provided the children with fabric markers to decorate their napkins with Seed to Belly- themed images.

Finally, the children were given reusable Whole Foods grocery bags to hold all the goodies they had received for the day as well as a packet of Seed to Belly formulas for making natural pesticides and recipes for fruit bar and green smoothie combinations to take home to practice and enjoy! 

The children and Afterschool program coordinators reacted very positively to the event. The children did begin to show signs of restlessness towards the completion of the Seed portion of the program, but the Belly activities rejuvenated them and re-ignited their interest.  The program curriculum has been submitted to the directors of the youth programs at Glide for future use.  This is an easily sustainable program, as it can be reproduced either in its entirety or in its individual components to groups of K-5 children and we believe strongly that it can help change the way children and families think about their lifestyle and diet choices. 

Click here to view a poster with pictures and information about the event.

Project Bra

Click here to read a Beyond Boulders blog post about Project Bra.

Homelessness is a huge problem in San Francisco. Often, homeless women go without much-needed hygiene supplies and undergarments and this poses a risk to both their health and sense of well-being. “Project Bra” was the creation of five Bay Area Schweitzer Fellows from University of California, San Francisco programs in medicine, nursing and pharmacy. The goals of the project were to distribute new women’s undergarments and toiletries to San Francisco homeless shelters, create a resource packet for the women at these shelters and raise awareness within the community about this need.

The Schweitzer Fellows (otherwise known as “Team Bra”) organized undergarment drives at UCSF and University of San Francisco during December and January 2008-09.

Advertising about the drives was done via e-mails, posters, collection bins and classroom visits. Two lunchtime events were also held on the Parnassus campus with the slogan “Cookie for a Bra.” If you made a donation to the drive you got a delicious cookie as a thank you. The monetary donations received were used to augment the actual donations of undergarments and toiletries.

While the drive was going on, the resource packet was created and copies were made to distribute along with the underwear and toiletries. In all, the team put together 200 gift bags containing toiletries, underwear, hair ties and the resource packet. Each bag was marked as to underwear size. Gift bags and a bin of bras of various sizes were then delivered to San Francisco shelters at Glide Memorial Church, La Casa de Las Madres, MSC South, St. Vincent de Paul and 5th St. Shelter.

Click here to view a poster with pictures and information about the event.