Health education and promotion programs provide educational resources or opportunities for promoting preventive lifestyle behaviors and the self-management of disease.
5+1=20
Student volunteers facilitate classes with Chicago Public High School students from the near West side. Volunteers educate students on the five most prevalent diseases in their communities and build the student’s capacity to be health promoters on their prevention strategies among neighbors, family and friends. Course materials are prepared for volunteers and include each disease’s diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and context in public health.
Cardiometabolic Health Initiative
Cardiometabolic Health Initiative is an interdisciplinary effort with the goal of mitigating cardiometabolic disease in at-risk communities in Chicago. This is done through free point of care Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD) risk calculation, fingerstick lipid panels, and A1C testing. Those identified as high risk are offered more in-depth cardiovascular screenings and longitudinal lifestyle coaching. While there are scheduled screenings every month at Beyond Hunger (a food pantry in Oak Park), we are always finding unique opportunities to offer our services to the community.
HERS
HERS stands for Health Education, Equity, Reproduction and Sexuality. The mission of HERS is to provide health education to the community focused on health equity, sexual education and reproductive freedom. Rush students will teach self-breast exams to the community and provide sexual health education on topics like sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy, menstruation, puberty and menopause in local schools and to community partners. HERS is a new RCSIP program and we are looking for steerers and volunteers to further develop programming that will allow for students to provide medical care in settings focused on women’s health.