National Blog

HealthShack - Your Life, Your Records

"A youth came down to our health clinic one day at the 412 Youth Zone, a drop-in site for unstably housed youth. She had a toothache and needed assistance in finding a dentist nearby that could see her on short notice and would accept her insurance. Helping to schedule appointments is one of the many services we provide at the Youth Zone clinic, so I began researching dentist offices. After finding one that was accessible by bus route, I helped the youth call to schedule an appointment. A few minutes into the conversation, the receptionist asked for her insurance number. The youth realized she didn’t have her insurance card with her. As a result, we had to wait to make an appointment and delayed her receiving treatment."
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Bridging the Gap

Health Educator LaRandi shares one of the challenges she's had to overcome this service term to ensure that Chicago Public School students receive the life saving asthma education they deserve.
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There’s Gotta Be a Better Way

"Is there a reason we do something a certain way? What would happen if we changed our methods? Do we have the capacity to start something brand new? At the beginning of my service year, my mentor Erin mentioned to me that we had gotten some inquiries about nutrition and cooking classes for pregnant or new moms, but we didn’t have anything to offer beyond basic nutrition classes for adults. As I started to think about my capstone project for the year, that idea stuck with me. I continued to ask myself those same questions and challenged myself to build something totally new, something we hadn’t done before."
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“Being Hungry Ain’t Pretty”

"Recently, I attended a conference about anti-hunger initiatives. A common theme throughout the conference was about “engaging those with lived experience” — in other words, letting those who have real life experience of hunger and food insecurity speak for themselves. The Food Bank of the Southern Tier, a food bank serving the Southern Tier region of New York, has a program called the Speakers Bureau where people experiencing food insecurity and poverty are trained to share their stories. A member of the Speakers Bureau named Dawn Tallett spoke about her experience at this conference."
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Enlightenment Through Service

"Through service, I learned that I should be okay with being uncomfortable in some situations, as long as I use them as an opportunity to reflect on the situation and myself rather than avoiding them. I cannot grow from being in a place of constant familiarly; there has to be some challenge or frustration to spark something within us to do better, or do different."
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