Opportunities for County Health Leaders to Engage in Service Learning
Service learning is a key strategy within CCPH as it provides mutual benefits for students and community partners. The most prominent example of focused service learning partnerships has been through an upper division community health course (HS 430: Community Health Program Development). The course is taught by Dr. Greg Welk and is the capstone course for ISU students pursuing the Community and Public Health option in the Department of Kinesiology. Coordinated, community-based service learning is the primary focus of the course since the experience provides tangible, real-world experiences in public health, thereby helping to prepare the students to be more effective public health professionals in the future. Formalized partnerships have been established with county health leaders from across the state with support provided by Louis Lex, a leader and icon in community health with the Iowa Department of Public Health. Links to past projects by students are available to review at right.
Consistent with the focus in CCPH, the upcoming service learning projects will focus on helping counties to operationalize and support goals related to the “Active People – Healthy Nation’. The campaign was launched by the CDC to promote physical activity and healthy living in the country so it is a great complement to the curricular coverage and focus of the course. There are also some tangible advantages for county health leaders by focusing on this initiative for the course-based service learning:
- Minimizing Burden: The focus will minimize the burden of county health leaders in coming up with specific projects since students will be tasked as small groups to share opportunities and ideas with their assigned county leader(s) – instead of the counties having to come up with tangible projects.
- Fostering Shared Learning: The common focus will also foster partnerships across counties and enable shared learning with insights from each projects being transferrable and useable by other counties.
- Targeting Health Needs: Physical activity and obesity prevention are among the most commonly referenced priorities by counties in the state CHNA – HIP process so the targeted focus will directly help individual counties (and Iowa as a whole) make progress on these health priorities.
- Promoting Sustainability: The Active People Healthy Nation campaign is a long-term initiative with goals focused on having 27 million American’s active by 2027. This extended timeline will provide a parallel, long-term focus as we work together to help Iowa be a leader in this national movement.
County health leaders interested in the collaboration can contact Dr. Greg Welk for additional information (gwelk@iastate.edu). Community health leaders that agree will serve as mentors / guides to a team of students (~4) as they work to help target Health Improvement Goals focused on healthy lifestyles in segments of the population. The leaders can guide students toward the most strategic ideas and help make needed connections but the burden would be minimal on leaders. The general expectation is to meet with the student group (electronically by Zoom in most cases for 30’ every 1-2 weeks. The course allocates Wednesdays for service learning so Wednesdays at 10:00 are the ideal meeting time.
Previous Service Learning Project Archive
What is the Service-Learning?
The mission of the Community Campus Partnership for Health at Iowa State University is to provide active, service-focused, community-based, mutually beneficial, integrated, learning opportunities for students, building and enhancing their commitment to academics, personal and professional development, and civic responsibility. The linking of ISU students and faculty to the community through service is the primary focus and role of the CCPH.
The voluntary service-learning opportunities provided for students originate from the community via requests from a wide range of non-profit organizations, mental health and human service agencies, schools, hospitals, and health care centers, pre-school/daycares, youth-serving and youth mentoring organizations, senior citizen facilities, environmental groups, incorporated neighborhood associations, government offices, museums, and community revitalization and cultural art endeavors. The CCPH not only connects students to community opportunities but consults and monitors related to best practices and university indemnification requirements as they relate to students engaged in service.
Community agencies and organizations may request ISU service-learning students for long-term service opportunities, and/or for one-time/short-term projects. Students may come to the agency/organization through ISU courses, academic majors/programs, student groups dedicated to service, or as individual service-learning volunteers.
The GivePulse tool is one of our primary community building tools. We use it to manage and support volunteers for outreach programming and can also set up pages for interested organizations and counties. The GivePulse tool managed by CCPH is a distributed, open and free network that helps volunteers find opportunities and organizations to find volunteers. We have created a simple process to help community partners get started with GivePulse. Click this link to complete a quick form and we can take the steps to set up a page for you.
What is GivePulse?
GivePulse is a powerful service and civic engagement tool that streamlines the collaboration between students, ISU faculty, and our community partner. click here to be redirected to our Community GivePulse Resource page.