Presenter: Will Avis, Aerospace Engineering, Global Public Health Scholars
My practicum project for the Global Public Health Scholars citation will be a service-
learning project; I will be leading an Alternative Breaks experience in Baltimore, MD that
focuses on combating homelessness and food insecurity in the city. With a small group of 8 participants that my co-leader and I have hand-picked from a pool of applicants, we will work alongside community partners such as A Wider Circle, Healthcare for the Homeless, and Paul’s Place to introduce a helping hand to the community in a way that keeps everyone involved very aware of ALL impacts that may result from an intervention like ours (there can be negative results, too, and Alternative Breaks works very hard to highlight and mitigate those possible negative consequences). By leading an intervention in our friendly neighbourhood Baltimore area, we hope to enlighten our participants and introduce them to the world of self-aware community service and build a lasting positive impact on the Baltimore city community.
Hello Will,
This practicum would have been a great experience to carry out all the way! It reminded me of a similar community service activity that my freshman GPH class did in August called Second Chance, which is a nonprofit that focuses on sustainability by reclaiming housing and building materials to reuse and sell. It is also a place that offers job opportunities to people who have trouble with employment due to barriers such as being formerly imprisoned. A question that I have is do you believe that the program is sustainable? Also, how would your learning from this this community service help with your future aspirations in public health/engineering/or any other field, if any?
Hi Will! Although your practicum project was cut short, it's great to see that you were still able to participate in a day of service. Your dedication to this cause shines through your poster. A question that came to mind when reading your poster was:
How are the issues of homelessness, in terms of housing, addressed/solved by community partners?
It was nice to see the amount of work and planning that goes into the Alternative Breaks at UMD to make sure the programs are getting involved in an organized and appropriate manner. Analysis of all impacts of any sort of intervention is important to evaluate and difficult to sometimes mitigate. Your work illustrated how Alternative Breaks makes their trips have a positive impact and the work necessary to do so. Has your team continued interaction with the organizations you were going to work with and found a way to til help them as they continue operations in these times?