For the month of January, the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the UCLA Health System are holding an online competition to fund scholarship projects with the aim of improving health in Los Angeles communities.
The “Helping U Help Your Community” competition will award five research projects started by UCLA faculty members in partnership with community organizations. The school of medicine will grant each of the winning research projects $20,000 to continue their work.
“The aim goal of the competition is to raise visibility about important issues in our community,” said Dr. Carol Mangione, a director of the community engagement effort for the competition. “It is to also honor the faculty and community partners who are addressing these issues in the most innovative ways.”
Started in summer 2014, the competition originally received 29 submissions from individual faculty members working with community partners. An internal selection committee then selected the strongest 10 projects, which UCLA community members and anyone in L.A. County can now vote online for.
Although the overarching theme of “Helping U Help Your Community” is to tackle important health issues in the county, each of the submissions approaches a different issue in a different region. Here are the final 10 proposals:
- The UCLA Breathmobile project is a mobile clinic that travels to schools in Los Angeles and Long Beach to deliver free asthma and allergy treatment as well as educate children and their families about the health conditions.
- Community Partners in Care is a research study aimed at determining the best way to implement depression care and improve mental health in communities throughout South Los Angeles and downtown Hollywood.
- The Achievable Health Center is a UCLA center that hopes to offer trainings and educate individuals about developmental disabilities and the specific health care needs they involve.
- The UCLA Mobile Eye Clinic is a mobile clinic that travels to underserved communities throughout L.A. County and offers eye care treatment through screenings and examinations.
- The Summer Urban Health Fellowship connects UCLA medical students with inner-city youth in the hopes of teaching underserved communities about health and health education.
- The UCLA TIES for Families project works with families looking to adopt children from the foster care system and aims to prepare them for the transition of bringing foster children into their homes.
- The Southern L.A. Patient Navigation and Wellness Center aims to support both those who have been diagnosed with cancer and those at risk for developing cancer who may not otherwise have access to health care.
- The L.A. Intergenerational “Generation Xchange” Program partners children who require special care with older adults trained to offer assistance. The program aims to benefit both age groups by creating meaningful intergenerational relationships.
- Autism in the African American Community is a program that works in South Los Angeles to promote accessibility to care for autism in black communities by offering support.
- Youth Opportunities for Life Options partners health professionals with inner-city students at Gardena High School to reduce the number of students who suffer from obesity by teaching them ways to live a healthy lifestyle.
The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the UCLA Health System hope to continue this as an annual project, Mangione said.