Every year thousands of Yale undergraduates and graduate/professional students join with those in New Haven's neighborhoods, schools, municipal departments and nonprofit agencies to improve the lives of people in the Elm City.
In fact, some of the programs founded by Yale students over the years have developed a community base and taken on a life of their own -- such as the International Student Center, established in 1949 to serve the City's foreign students; Marrakech, a program for mildly retarded young adults; the New Haven Halfway House, founded in 1967, which is the oldest transitional living facility of its kind in Connecticut; and L.E.A.P. (Leadership, Education and Athletics in Partnership), which pairs inner-city youths age 7 to 14 with college students and is now a nationally recognized model youth program that serves about 1,300 children annually in four Connecticut cities. Still more initiatives are being launched every year.
The following are just some of Yale's community service programs.
Dwight Hall at Yale
For over a century Dwight Hall at Yale, an independently run center for public service and social justice at the University, has helped interested volunteers link up with existing community service programs or establish new ones.
Today Dwight Hall's program includes over 2,000 volunteers, over 70 student-coordinated volunteer programs and a diverse network of student involvement in more than 100 different agencies in New Haven. In addition to the numerous programs pairing students at Yale with those in the New Haven Public Schools (see page 5), these undergraduate service groups range from the Yale Hunger and Homelessness Action Project, which helps provide volunteers for area soup kitchens, the Drop-In Center and various lobbying groups; to Reach Out Speak Out, which teaches public speaking skills to young students; to Instrumental Connections, in which Yale volunteers give music lessons to City students; to FOCUS on New Haven, a week-long community service orientation to the Elm City for incoming sophomores.
Last year the Yale Club of New Haven launched a new partnership with the center to create "The Yale Club at Dwight Hall," a program that matches the club's members with local service organizations.
President's Public Service Fellows
President Richard C. Levin established the President's Public Service Fellowship in 1994 to provide expanded opportunities for Yale students to work in the City to promote economic development, human development and neighborhood revitalization with public sector and nonprofit organizations. Last summer alone, 40 undergraduate and graduate/professional students served as Presidential Fellows, working for up to 14 weeks at 36 different organizations.
Graduate and Professional Schools
Students at Yale's Graduate School and 10 professional schools are also deeply involved in community service efforts. Descriptions of some of these programs follow:
* Through the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization, students at Yale Law School offer legal help to individuals who cannot afford private attorneys.
* Faculty and students from the Yale School of Music give lessons to students at Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School, part of the New Haven Public Schools, and they also work with teachers to incorporate arts into their curriculum.
* Every year for over three decades, first-year students at the Yale School of Architecture have put theory into practice by designing and constructing a building for area nonprofit organizations through the First-Year Building Project. Over the years, students have built park pavilions, camp cabins and community centers. In recent years, students have teamed up with local groups like Habitat for Humanity to build affordable housing for low-income families in the New Haven area.
* The Yale School of Drama's Dwight Edgewood Project takes young people from New Haven and pairs them with Yale School of Drama student mentors to explore theater by writing, improvising and working on character development. Each participant eventually writes a play for public performance by Yale School of Drama actors.
* Students at the Yale School of Management provide free business consulting services to nonprofit, public and private organizations in the community.
* In addition to its initiative with the New Haven Public Schools (see page 5), the Urban Resources Initiative at the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies works with residents of New Haven neighborhoods to transform abandoned lots and other common areas into parks and gardens through its Community Greenspace projects.
Medical, Nursing and Public Health Schools
To achieve their goal of improving public health, particularly among the people in their hometown of New Haven, the Yale School of Medicine and its Department of Epidemiology and Public Health and the Yale School of Nursing sponsor numerous educational, research and treatment programs addressing issues ranging from substance abuse to good nutrition, cancer, prenatal care, childhood trauma, independent living for the elderly and much more.
Community service has long been a tradition for medical, public health and nursing students. In fact, about 70% of all medical center students are involved in some form of public service. These programs include, but are certainly not limited to, the following:
* Medical and Nursing School students offer free health care to over 300 New Haven residents each week through the Community Health Care Van, a program sponsored by the University in conjunction with Yale-New Haven and
St. Raphael's Hospitals, the City of New Haven and other state and local organizations. The van makes daily rounds through neighborhoods, as well as to soup kitchens and emergency shelters.
* Public health students lead workshops on nutrition, personal hygiene, self-esteem and conflict resolution at the New Haven Boys & Girls Club.
* Yale's Health Professions Partnership Initiative (HPPI), a national program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that aims to increase the entry and success of minority students in the health professions, brings together Yale students in medical, public health and nursing with those at New Haven's Hill Regional Career High School, a magnet school for science and health professions. HPPI sponsors such mentorship programs as Yale BioSTEP (Biomedical Science Training and Enrichment Program); the Minority Medical Education Program; and the STARS (Science, Technology and Research Scholars) program. HPPI also sponsors the SCHOLAR summer program (see page 5) and the Yale Residential Institute for Science Enrichment, a summer program that provides participants hands-on experience in laboratory research.
* Many medical, nursing and public health students serve as volunteers in the Bright Beginnings program based at Yale-New Haven Hospital, an outreach program for young, pregnant women and their children in the Greater New Haven area.
Contents
A Message from President Levin
Yale & New Haven in the News -- Campus & City Making Headlines
University Honored for its Town-Gown Initiatives
Yale's Office of New Haven & State Affairs
Yale & the New Haven Public Schools: Programs for Students
Yale & the New Haven Public Schools:
Initiatives Aiding City Teachers in Curriculum Development
Yale Community Service Programs
Yale & New Haven Arts and Culture
University Athletes & City Youths
Showcasing Town & Gown
Other Town-Gown News
Yale & New Haven: Facts and Statistics
SPRING / SUMMER