Community Engagement Practicum: Building on Health Education Efforts

In this course students will learn about health priorities of pre-teen and adolescent youth and engage in developing and presenting health educational materials for children enrolled in Redwood City Middle Schools, or other under-resourced schools in San Mateo County.Building on the philosophy of H.E.L.P for kids (Health Education for Life-Partnership for Kids) founded by Dr. TW Wiedmann, this course aims to expand the network of Stanford students dedicated to preparing youth in our local community for life?s challenges, while fostering Stanford?s mission of pursuing service to benefit humanity.In collaboration with the Haas Center for Public Service, students in this course will learn about engaging with community partners in the process of identifying areas of priority, development and delivery of educational materials, as well as evaluating educational interventions. Community engagement (CE) can be an effective strategy for harnessing community potential, especially in health improvement, and our community partners will include the Rosalyn Rendu Center in East Palo Alto and selected Middle Schools in Redwood City.Students will learn about focus groups and interviewing as a way of eliciting engagement from youth, parents, and teachers. Students will participate in selecting and developing health education materials and providing one-on-one tutoring or classroom presentations. Students will also have an opportunity to reflect on Principles of Ethical and Effective Service guidelines to inform interaction with the community partners, develop and provide health education, and evaluate interventions. The course will offer a didactic session once a week and opportunity for weekly group activities and tutoring engagement.