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Featured Projects

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  The Better Respiratory Education and Assistance Targeting Houston's Elementary (BREATHE) program is designed to provide respiratory health education to medically underserved youth. At its core, we aim to help students build better health awareness and provide tools that enable them to advocate for themselves. Our unique undergraduate-led structure focuses on interactive conversation-based learning that engages the students we work with, providing a fun and welcoming space to decrease respiratory health stigma and increase health literacy.

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  The Creative Care project aims to collaborate with Cuney Homes to increase mental health outcomes through a curriculum that encourages self-expression, physical activity, and reflective writing. The Creative Care project is dedicated to providing a safe space for the children to be themselves and gain the tools needed to deal with their life stressors. Volunteers will develop and facilitate weekly creative wellness workshops for elementary and middle school-aged children. Creative Care is also beginning a partnership with a Houston Community Health Worker to lead a women’s domestic violence support group, using art therapy to promote healing.

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  Project Engaging Encouraging Rising Students (PEERS), supported by the ̽»¨ÊÓƵ, Honors College, Community Health Workers Initiative, and the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Data Science Institute, focuses on encouraging STEM education and providing mentorship to underserved students in grades 9-12. PEERS grew from and embodies the Community Health Workers (CHWs) model as simultaneous educators and advocates. Initially conceived in a CHW class, this program pairs high school students and the ̽»¨ÊÓƵ undergraduates to create long-lasting, effective, and engaging community projects that are meaningful and relevant. In addition, facilitating community engagement through collaboration and project-based learning encourages both our undergraduate and high school participants to pursue academic and professional development to advocate for improved health outcomes in their communities. Each student team presents their final project at the PEERS competition to compete for a monetary prize.

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  Responsive Resourcing (RR) aims to spotlight public health barriers and potential resources unique to the diverse communities or “hubs” of Houston, including Gulfton, Sunnyside, Pasadena, and Third Ward, to help alleviate health gaps in these hubs. RR enables students to engage in volunteering, research, interactive workshops, and collaborations with community health workers (CHWs). Through these experiences, students will learn about the non-medical drivers of health specific to Houston and the unique role of CHWs in building healthier communities.

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  The Wildlife and Environmental Advocacy and Relief (WEAR) project aims to bring awareness to environmental health disparities in the Greater-Houston area through research and civic engagement. Our goal is to use data and research to show how systemic racism has affected black and brown communities in Houston while also giving a platform to community members who do not have a voice. Our unique partner-based structure connects a variety of Houston’s leaders in environmental toxicology, architecture, biology, public health, data, etc. together with the goal of using green solutions to solve the city’s environmental issues. At our core, we are an advocacy group who is striving for environmental health equity in Houston!

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  Operation Fusion aims to serve the refugee and immigrant children of Las Americas Newcomer School while partnering with Amaanah Refugee Services. The goal of Operation Fusion is to blend culture and health through education and empowerment to allow the students to define their identity and set their personal health goals. This program emphasizes explicitly channeling cultural diversity to promote a sense of agency and belonging. Volunteers will lead weekly interactive sessions encouraging students to build healthy habits and learn to utilize their home cultures as assets in their education, identity, and everyday lives.

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  Self-Advocacy for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (SAIID) is dedicated to empowering individuals with intellectual disabilities by enhancing their ability to navigate and advocate within the healthcare system. Individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) are at greater risk for significant health issues, yet face serious barriers to accessing quality healthcare. People with ID often experience unmet healthcare needs, and their voices can be overlooked by providers who may focus more on caregivers than on the patients themselves. To address these challenges, SAIID seeks to improve self-advocacy skills for individuals with intellectual disabilities through interactive workshops focusing on the various aspects of healthcare, as well as to boost awareness of intellectual disabilities among pre-health undergraduate students.
  

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