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See It: The Community being helped
Johanna’s outstanding program will offer life-changing seminars in Sandtown-Winchester, Maryland, a 72 square block neighborhood in West Baltimore, where residents are struggling with unemployment and health issues. The median income is around $15,000/year and over 50% of the population suffers from unemployment. Researchers have proven that low income correlates highly with decreased access to and knowledge of appropriate health care. As a way to increase health care awareness, Joanna has organized the “New Song’s Health Awareness Seminar Series.” The seminars will run February through May and will consist of invited speakers presenting and teaching individuals how to care for themselves, as well as practical and accessible way to improve their lifestyles.
Believe it: Describe your project/org
Build it: Steps taken to create the project/org and the kind of impact made
With funding, we were able to move forwards in planning for the event. Our first task was to identify an appropriate theme for the seminar and find a speaker. We determined that diabetes was an important issue in the community and since Dr. Belinda Chen, director of the Health Co-Op, had available materials and expertise on the subject, we decided that she would give the seminar. We prepared most of the food ourselves, since that would be more practical for the residents to apply to their daily lives. We also included nutritional facts about the meal so participants could portion their own meals. The seminar was a success – we had sixteen participants that all had personal interest in diabetes. We started off the seminar by having Dr. Chen explain some common misconceptions about diabetes and explaining the difference between type I and type II diabetes and how they affect the body. The latter part of the seminar included an interactive session with audience questions and discussions about how to better manage diabetes. Overall, the seminar accomplished what we had set out to do.Vital Stats
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| People Involved: | People Impacted: | ||
| Money Raised: | $1000 |
Project Updates:
My project allowed the Health Co-Op to offer services to members of the community who had no previous exposure to our center. We were able to combine healthy living with diabetes in this seminar through the meal portion of the seminar. We provided fajitas as a main dish. This allowed us to teach individuals how to correctly portion their food in regards to vegetables (lettuce, onion, green pepper), protein (meat), grains (tortilla), and fat (cheese). Our seminar was also organized in a way which allowed participants to learn information, but also ask questions that they had. With a smaller group we were able to personalize our message to each individual. Because the Health Co-Op is comprised of medical professionals that are involved in the community, it is easier to give advice and suggestions on lifestyle changes. Our original predictions regarding the budget were pretty accurate. We had allotted more funds for the meal, but because we decided to make the food ourselves, the cost was much lower. This will allow us to put on additional seminars with the funds we did not use. Our project was successful -- we reached a target population in the Sandtown community and imparted practical applications of how to prevent diabetes progression and how to manage a lifestyle with diabetes.
