CHAP Adolescent Mentoring Projects

School of Medicine, Family Medicine

Interdisciplinary Leadership Training and Service Learning in the Community Health Advancement Program (CHAP)

CHAP, a twenty-year-old health sciences program which provides service learning and leadership training to students who develop, fund and work in under-served communities, will implement two adolescent mentoring projects in partnership with the Seattle Public School District. These projects will be interdisciplinary opportunities for students from all the health science schools to work together, mentoring adolescents and developing and presenting health related topics to them. At Hamilton Middle School, CHAP students are placed in sixth grade classes to discuss health topics and to serve as mentors for the entire school year. Through the Teen Activities Program at Orion Center, CHAP students will serve as mentors for homeless adolescents by providing tutoring and health education classes.

Contact:	Sharon Dobie Coordinator, CHAP Associate Professor, Family Medicine dob@u.washington.edu
Allocation:	$59,470
Date Funded:	October 1998

PROGRESS REPORT

Community Health Advancement Program (CHAP)

The Mentoring Project at Hamilton Middle School and the Teen Activities and Tutoring Project at the Orion Center were very successful this year. At Hamilton, we increased from one classroom to two. Thirty-three mentors worked in teams of four with 40 students. Mentors represented a broad range of disciplines: nursing, medical, pharmacy, physician assistant, public health, medical research, pathology, and social work. Seven times a quarter mentor teams presented a health related topic for 10 minutes, followed by small group meetings of mentors and students for 50 minutes.

At Orion Center, 24 medical and premedical mentors worked in teams of two or three presenting health related topics to students ranging in age from 12 to 19. Much of the time was spent interacting with the students, answering questions and discussing how these topics apply to their lives. Five mentors volunteered extra hours to tutor reading and math.

At both schools topics included: anti-smoking, career, sleep, body and self-image, interpersonal qualities, dental hygiene, anger management and violence, anatomy, mental health, nutrition, viruses/microbes, aging, reproduction/contraception, general hygiene, organ donation, and first aid.

All mentors participated in a workshop on adolescent development and had opportunities for evaluation and reflection after sessions and during the preparation of curriculum presentations. Evaluations are strongly positive from the students, the mentors and school personnel.

Continuity is an important attribute to these programs. Quarterly classroom and mentor changes in schedules serve to lessen the continuity. While a high degree of professionalism is expected in their presentations, the mentors are learners themselves. Providing them with guidance and education to improve their presentations, while respecting the limitations on their time remains a challenge.

Lesson plans are being written as formal curriculum modules with plans to market them to an educational publisher. A training handbook on mentoring is also being developed.

FINAL REPORT: November 1, 1998 -October 31, 2000

PURPOSE:
Funding was given to support the full implementation of two pilot adolescent mentoring projects, which are interdisciplinary health science student service learning programs. These pilot projects are part of the Community Health Advancement Program (CHAP), a program in the Department of Family Medicine which offers service learning and leadership training to students working in underserved communities. These adolescent pilots were designed and implemented in partnership with the Seattle Public Schools - Hamilton Middle School and Orion Center.

OBJECTIVE:
Establish the adolescent mentoring project at two sites to enhance interdisciplinary and service learning for students.

SECOND YEAR REPORT:
For the 1999-2000 school year, 30 health science students from the UW volunteered as mentors to kids at Hamilton Middle School in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle. Fifteen of these 30 students participated in the mentoring program for the full academic school year; 7 participated for two quarters; and 8 participated for one quarter. The 30 UW mentors consisted of students from the Schools of Medicine (12), MEDEX (1), Pharmacy (9), Public Health (6), and Nursing (1). One student was also a premed undergraduate.

The UW students worked with children from three English as Second Language (ESL) classrooms at Hamilton Middle School, serving a total of 37 students from grades 6, 7, and 8. The Hamilton students represented a variety of ethnic backgrounds: Somalia (2), Vietnam (9), China (7), Laos (8), Korea (2), Honduras (1), Guatemala (1), Ethiopia (2), Iran (1), Philippines (1), Thailand (2), and Bulgaria (1).

The UW mentors and Hamilton students met a total of 17 times during the 1999-2000 school year. Topics of discussion covered during those meetings included aging, anatomy, anger management/violence prevention, body image, microbes, healthy habits, exercise, genetics, inhalants, making resolutions, media/peer pressure, nutrition, reproduction/contraception, sleep, smoking prevention, water consumption/conservation. The UW students also hosted the Hamilton students to a hands-on field trip/tour of the health science complex during Spring Quarter 2000.

For the current academic school year (2000-20001), we have a total of 27 UW mentors working with 6th, 7th, and 8th-grade students in two ESL classrooms (34 Hamilton students) as well as one classroom of 7th graders in health class (30 Hamilton students). Three of this year's mentors also mentored last year. The mentors represent the following pre-professional tracks: medicine (16), physical therapy (1), social work (1), nursing (3), MEDEX (2), premed (4). Thus far, we have covered the following topics in mentoring: anatomy, alcohol abuse, anti-smoking, body image, and one mentor's experience working with dolphins in Hawaii.

Health education at Orion Center continued. Orion Center, in association with Seattle Public Schools, aids homeless teens in obtaining a high school diploma or GED. Orion provides some meals, educational opportunities, recreational programs, mentoring and other services. Medical and premedical students gave eleven presentations during the 1999-2000 school year covering such topics as general hygiene, dental health, heart, lungs, skin, brain, first aid, guns and violence and nutrition. Seven students tutored reading, writing and math, one-on-one in the classroom. Student coordinators also attended the half-day training session with the Hamilton Adolescent Mentoring Group.

This fall quarter 2000, eight students have given four presentations covering the heart, first aid, sex education, and anatomy. We have 5 students tutoring this quarter with two of them going twice a week for two-hour sessions. This provides much needed continuity. Our student coordinators attended the training session with the Hamilton Adolescent Mentoring Group. At least ten sessions are planned for the rest of the academic year 2000-2001.

FINAL REPORT SUMMARY:
Funding from this grant facilitated the full implementation of the two adolescent mentoring programs. These two programs have provided health science students with an interdisciplinary service learning experience where they have significant responsibility. Hamilton and Orion students receive health promotion discussions and mentoring, often forming important relationships with the young adults working with them.

The evaluations by the mentors are overwhelmingly positive, citing the importance of the interdisciplinary teamwork, the contact with the adolescents, and the learning about health promotion. Students from Hamilton and Orion also evaluate the program highly. They appreciate the attention of their mentors and speak with enthusiasm about the content of the presentations. School staff comment on the augmentation of their efforts.

The program continues to operate this year (2000-2001) with the last couple of months of funding from this grant and with the support of the Department of Family Medicine. While we had hoped to find financial sustainability through publication of some of our curriculum, there has been an emergence of web-based information and sites very consistent with our efforts. We have actively pursued foundation support, but have not yet succeeded. Lastly, we have applied for a predoctoral training grant supplemental from the US Department of Health and Human Services. If funded, CHAP and the mentoring projects would have adequate funding for July 2001 through June 2002.

Tools for Transformation Funded Proposals