HLTH391 Students Host Health Fair in Seat Pleasant

Take a look at the following article, written by HLTH391 students about their upcoming health fair in Seat Pleasant, Md.
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Each semester, students taking Principles of Community Health I (Hlth391) have the opportunity to take what they learned in the classroom and put it into the community—they plan, implement and evaluate health fairs for various communities in the Prince George’s county area. This semester, students will be implementing health fairs at Goodwin Park in Seat Pleasant, the Multicultural Youth center in Riverdale, at Paint Branch Elementary school in College Park, and here on campus in the School of Public Health building.  The health fairs benefit both students and local community members; students have the opportunity to connect with residents and acquire skills needed to be successful health educators while community residents obtain health information and screenings they need to improve their health and increase their quality of life.

This is the 12^th year in a row students from Dr. Sharon Desmond’s Hlth 391 class have conducted their health fair in Seat Pleasant, as the university has a special relationship with the city of Seat Pleasant, due to the health partnership that has been in existence between the city and the university since 1999. For planning purposes, students were divided into six committees and given numerous responsibilities and tasks that needed to be accomplished to assure a successful health fair. The committees consisted of Facilities Management, Publicity, Topics, Vendors, Door Prize, and Evaluation.  

Publicity committee members are in charge of advertising the health fair to the public.  Students distributed fliers and created t-shirts to wear the day of the fair, and wrote articles for local newspapers about the event.  Students on the facilities management committee organized the space and will provide needed equipment and take care of any logistical issues (parking, table set up, etc.). Students on the vendors committee identified community organizations and agencies and then invited them to participate in our health fair.  They wrote formal letters of request and will send notes of appreciation once the fair is over.  Door Prize committee members solicited donations from local businesses for a free raffle that is part of the health fair. Residents always enjoy getting prizes, especially when it benefits their health at the same time.  Members of the evaluation committee created surveys to be distributed to attendees so that we can get their feedback on how to improve future health fairs. They also created surveys for the vendors and students to complete. Finally, students serving on the topics committee conducted a needs and strengths assessment with residents and key community leaders to determine which health issues we should address at the health fair. They found that residents wanted/needed information about better nutrition, diabetes, kidney disease, high blood pressure, and Alzheimer’s, among others



The health fair this year is Saturday May 7^th in Goodwin Park from noon until 4:00 p.m., Students and participating vendors will provide information on the above mentioned topics, as well as health screenings for HIV/AIDS, blood glucose levels, blood pressure, osteoporosis and body fat, among others. 

This service learning project allowed students to learn how to plan, implement and evaluate a health related program by actually doing it, as opposed to writing a paper on how to conduct one or reading a book about it. This experience enabled students to be truly engaged in the learning process. We were able to speak one on one with residents and develop a better understanding of their health related strengths and needs, as well as their culture.  These are especially important experiences given the changing demographics of our nation. Also, working with “real” people out in the community is extremely rewarding and fun!