Dear Colleagues,
The DICE Office (Dr. Lisa McBride), the Center for Global Health Equity (Dr. Lisa Adams) and office of Community Service Learning (Dr. Ruth Berggren), are delighted to launch Health Equity 2.0: a new way to catalyze community engaged scholarship for our learners and served communities. We invite you to learn more, and consider becoming a community service learning project mentor or mini/midi grant reviewer.
Community service learning is a structured learning experience that combines community service with mentored preparation and reflection. Under this new Health Equity 2.0 initiative, Geisel MD and/or MPH students are invited to apply for competitive mini-grants ($500 for a pilot project) or midi-grants (up to $5000 for more established projects or those with broader scope) to defray costs associated with a service learning project of their choosing. The student should identify a community identified need and implement a service project within that community. Students will be expected to report and present outcomes from their work. Every project should have strong preparation that helps students understand the social determinants and structural barriers to health in the community they plan to serve. While much of this preparation will be provided by a seminar series offered by the DICE office and the Center for Global Health equity, learners need strong mentoring, guided reflection opportunities, and practical evaluation strategies.
We are looking for faculty mentors, who are essential to the success of this model. Mentors help with the preparation of learners as they launch projects, nurture community partner relationships, and offer subject matter expertise. Longitudinal mentor-mentee relationships are deeply valued by faculty and students, during this time of professional identity formation. Healthy mentor-community relationships can catalyze trust, and build bridges of collaboration with the communities served by Dartmouth Health and Geisel. We are fortunate to be able to work with DH Population Health, a team which has nurtured trusted relationships in our community for years and regularly conducts a robust Community Health Needs Assessment. In addition, the new Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity provides an infrastructure to bring community constituents and academic partners together in work to improve rural health equity.
There will be 2 mini/midi grant submissions annually, with the first deadline on Sept. 15. Projects will be presented in poster format at an annual Community Service Learning conference keynoted by nationally recognized thought leaders, who will engage with us in discussions about best practices in promoting health equity.
If you would like to be a faculty mentor, and/ or a mini/midi grant reviewer, please contact Kelly Burgess with questions and contact information. We’d appreciate knowing a little bit about your subject matter expertise and community engagement opportunities you may have already established. A new mentor/mini grant reviewer information session is planned soon!
We look forward to hearing from you,
Drs. Ruth Berggren, Lisa Adams, and Lisa McBride