| Organization Name | Description | Relevant links | Video |
|---|
Age Well | Topic: Access to Care for our Aging Vermont Population. This project is with Age Well, one of Vermont’s Area Agencies on Aging. You will work with your faculty and community mentors to determine specific scope, topic, and methods. Critical needs include access to care and how we monitor supply and shortages. Methods could include structured interviews, focus groups, and use of publicly-available data to help Age Well continue to meet health needs of older Vermonters. You will present your project in a visually-appealing poster. | Age Well Website | |
American Heart Association of Vermont | Topic: Advocating for Heart Health in Vermont. Public policy advocacy is an essential strategy used by the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association to affect needed policy, system and environmental change. These efforts in states and communities focus on five major policy areas: Tobacco Free, Quality Systems of Care, Healthy Eating, Active Living, and Access to Care. You will work with your faculty and community mentors to determine scope, topic, and methods. You will learn how to impact health policy and advocacy in Vermont. You will present your project in a visually-appealing poster. | American Heart Association of Vermont Website | |
American Lung Association in Vermont | Topic: Advocating for Lung Health in Vermont. The ALAVT works to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease through education, advocacy, and research. One need is to study knowledge and opinions about mask wearing among patients with and without lung disease, also including attitudes about new COVID-19 vaccines. You will work with your faculty and community mentors to determine scope, topic, and methods. Students have done many previous projects with ALA in Vermont with great success. You will present your project in a visually-appealing poster. | American Lung Association Website | |
American Red Cross | Topic: Continuing to Build our Essential Blood Supply. From 2006 to the present, students have completed many successful projects with the ARC. This is part of the health care and public health infrastructure: maintaining our blood supply is critical. Project topics vary, depending on local and regional needs, and have included topics about recruitment and retention of blood donors and building a diverse blood supply. You will work with your faculty and community mentors to determine project topic, scope, and methods. You will present your project in a visually-appealing poster. | American Red Cross of Northern New England Website | |
Champlain Community Services | Topic: Collaborating with Health Professionals and Advocacy for Community Services. Previous student groups have worked with CCS and your community mentor will share previous work and current needs. You will work with your faculty and community mentors to determine project scope and methods. This year’s remote project will continue to create linkages between health professionals and people served by CCS to ensure health and social needs are addressed. This could include such products as video training modules, advocacy education, or other topics to educate physicians. You will present your project in a visually-appealing poster. | Champlain Community Services Website | |
Chittenden Accountable Community for Health | Topic: Suicide Screening and Intervention in Primary Care Settings. Mental health, specially suicide prevention, is a priority for action in the most recent UVMMC Community Health Needs Assessment. The project goal is to determine current screening practices, interventions, and needs in Chittenden County primary care practices. You will work with your faculty and community mentors to determine scope and methods, that might include focus groups, structured interviews, or surveys. You will make recommendations based on your findings and present your project in a visually-appealing poster. | Community Health Needs Assessment | |
Falls Free Vermont Coalition | Topic: Current Practices in Fall Screening and Referral. Falls are a leading cause of death in older adults. There has been a multi-year focus in Vermont to address this public health issue. Many organizations and communities have initiated programs for older adults, but we have not seen a significant decrease in the fall mortality rate. This project will determine what community organizations and primary care practices are doing, and what evidence-based strategies are needed. You will work with your faculty and community mentors to determine scope and methods. You will present your project in a visually-appealing poster. | Falls Free Vermont Coalition Website | |
Hunger Free Vermont | Topic: Evaluating Accessibility and Effectiveness of School Nutrition Programs during COVID-19. During the pandemic, schools have been first line of defense against child food insecurity and hunger. You will work with your faculty and community mentors to gather data from schools/districts about their meal programs and how they have adapted (since the beginning of the pandemic), by conducting interviews with school food service managers and staff. What changes were made? What are barriers and facilitators to accessible meals? What are Vermont best practices? You will present your project in a visually-appealing poster. | Hunger Free Vermont | |
Next Generation of Choices | Topic: Cancer Prevention despite COVID-19. Delays in health care and dental care have been widespread during the pandemic. This project will more specifically assess delays in evidence-based cancer screening and prevention and make recommendations for improvements. You will work with your faculty and community mentors to determine scope, topic, and methods. Possible methods include a short, social-media based survey, based on one or more areas of cancer prevention. You will present your project in a visually-appealing poster. | LessCancer.org Website | |
Northern New England Center for Translational Research | Topic: Creating Community Bridges to Enhance Translational Research. The NNE-CTR Rural Core aims to increase research to improve health outcomes in Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire. Barriers and facilitators to rural health care research are known, but how to engage communities is a missing piece. You will work with your faculty and community mentors to determine scope and methods. Using one or more focus groups with leaders of community organizations, you will identify ways to connect clinical practices and community organizations to enhance rural research to help patients and communities. You will present your project in a visually-appealing poster. | NNE CTR Website | |
Sara Holbrook Community Center | Topic: Navigating Community Health and Wellbeing Resources. Caregivers (parents, family, other adults) need help navigating community resources to keep themselves healthy, such as finding ways to improve nutrition and increase physical activity, reduce stress, access yoga, learn mindfulness, etc. You will work with your faculty and community mentors to determine the scope of your project. Students will create a map of community resources to help people navigate resources, and create evidence-based teaching videos on selected topics. In addition to materials created, you will present your project in a visually-appealing poster. | Sara Holbrook Community Center Website | |
Special Olympics Vermont | Topic: Improving Health Literacy in Special Olympics Athletes. Many athletes with intellectual disabilities have chronic conditions - such as diabetes or obesity - creating risks for premature illness. This project will tackle these health issues and create a sustainable health portfolio, with age-appropriate health information to prevent consequences of chronic conditions. What is the best way to deliver this information to athletes – video, audio, written materials? You will work with your community and faculty mentors to determine the scope and methods for your work. In addition to materials created, you will present your project in a visually-appealing poster. | Special Olympics Vermont Website | |
UVM AHEC Program | Topic: Primary Care: Focus on Vermont’s Naturopathic workforce. The aim of this project is to explore the role that naturopathic doctors (NDs) play in healthcare delivery in Vermont. NDs are recognized as primary care physicians in Vermont, but it is not clear the extent to which their practice is full spectrum primary care versus consultative or specialty-focused. You will work with your faculty and community mentors to determine scope and methods. Students will develop a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the intersection between allopathic/osteopathic and “complementary and alternative” disciplines. You will present your project in a visually-appealing poster. | AHEC Website | |
UVM Integrative Health | Topic: Integrative Approaches for Chronic Pain. This project will focus on exploring alternatives to opioids for patients with chronic pain. You will work with your faculty and community mentors to determine specific scope and methods. You will study evidence-based integrative approaches and develop educational materials for patients. You will determine the best modalities (written materials, videos, etc.) to improve patients’ health literacy; topics may include non-opioid medications, acupuncture, massage therapy, medicinal cannabinoids, movement classes, mindfulness and meditation, nutrition, physical therapy, reiki and herbal therapies. In addition to educational materials You will present your project in a visually-appealing poster. | UVM Integrative Health Website | |
UVMMC Community Health Improvement | Topic: Developing Inclusive Community Health Improvement Initiatives. Previous priorities have included mental health, health care and social needs, all exacerbated by COVID-19. This year’s project will focus on equity, diversity and inclusion and creating an implementation plan from the lens of anti-racism: how can we best achieve inclusion of marginalized voices in the community via this process? How will we work with diverse community partners? How do we know if we are making progress? You will work with your faculty and community mentors to determine specific scope and methods. You will present your project in a visually-appealing poster. | Community Health Needs Assessment | |
Winooski Food Shelf | Topic: Reaching New American Families to Meet Changing Health and Social Needs. Project goals focus on discovering ways to reach community leaders to meet food and social service needs in a culturally appropriate way. You will work with your faculty and community mentors to determine scope and methods. You will consider virtual focus groups or structured interviews. Your project should consider how the system you create can be sustained, such that the Winooski food shelf can respond to new and changing needs in New American families. You will present your project in a visually-appealing poster. | Winooski Food Shelf Website | |