Cardinal Health Education Collaborative (CHEC)
Teach health lessons to middle school students from populations that are medically underserved.
Cardinal Health Education Collaborative (CHEC) volunteers teach health lessons to middle school students from populations that are medically underserved. Topics include physical activity, nutrition, sleep habits, mental health, and more. Middle school students learn about factors that affect their physical and mental well-being and learn achievable ways they can care for their health.
Stanford School of Medicine faculty support CHEC student leaders and volunteers. They welcome collaboration on partnerships and communication with middle school administration, health lesson design and evaluation, program evaluation, tutoring, sports opportunities, gardening and cooking opportunities, website maintenance, and fundraising.
Currently, CHEC is partnering with Kennedy Middle School in Redwood City, CA. CHEC volunteers provide health education lessons to all sixth graders (nearly 300 middle school students). Teaching sessions are held throughout the day on select Fridays, and volunteers can choose to teach one or more classes as their schedule permit. Prior to serving as teachers, new volunteers 1) complete an online training and 2) shadow experienced CHEC teachers at least once.
The CHEC Club started in the 1990s under the leadership of Dr. T.W. Wiedmann who named the program HELP4Kids (Health Education Lifetime Partnership for Kids). Thanks to her passion and leadership, the mission of HELP4Kids lives on in the CHEC Club.