The Yale Urban Health Program will expand its community outreach efforts, thanks to a recent three-year grant of nearly half a million dollars from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
The grant will be used to expand collaborations within the Yale medical center, the University and the Greater New Haven area. This will include expanding curricula and creating new programs, including student internships and a minority fellows program.
The program will also launch its second annual Urban Health Lecture Series on Monday, Oct. 27. The topics to be explored this year include the effects of pesticides on children, school health, prevention of HIV among drug users in New Haven, and prenatal cocaine exposure. The first talk -- "Urban Health: Can We Build a Team?" -- will be presented by former medical school dean Dr. Gerard N. Burrow, now adviser to the President Richard C. Levin and the David Paige Smith Professor of Medicine.
"This lecture series highlights only some of the critical issues facing the urban community today," says Nora Groce, assistant professor of public health, principal investigator for the grant and one of three codirectors of the Urban Health Program. "Our program also addresses issues such as violence prevention, homelessness and abuse. The HRSA grant will further our goal of getting some of the most talented and motivated public health, medical and nursing students working together to improve the well-being of people in urban communities." All lectures will be held at noon in Rm. 608 of the Laboratory of Epidemiology and Public Health, 60 College St. Admission is free, and the public is invited.
For news of other upcoming talks, watch future issues of the Yale Bulletin & Calendar or visit the Urban Health Program website at www.info.med.yale.edu/urbanhealth/
The Urban Health Program, created in 1995 with a planning grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts, fosters interaction be-tween students at Yale, faculty and the New Haven community. Since the program began, more than 250 public health, medical and nursing students have participated. Students have worked in urban clinics serving homeless people as well as victims of domestic violence and abuse. Professor Groce and her colleagues hope that these experiences will encourage the students to pursue careers working with urban populations.
"One of the program's main emphases is on bringing more community-based practitioners into the university to share their experiences and expertise," says Professor Groce. "Last year, some students organized a gang intervention program in which a panel of former gang members and community leaders addressed medical center faculty and students on violence prevention issues. The panel also advised public health and nursing students who were designing a violence prevention program for an urban youth organization."