Widespread changes to communities where you work, live, and play are made possible by a valued partnerships with organizations in those communities. AHEC spends time developing the relationships through collaboration, goal sharing, and evaluation of the community partnerships to ensure outreach programming is the right fit for everyone involved.
University of Texas Houston Cizik School of Nursing
The Greater Houston Region facilitates service learning experiences for UT Houston School of Nursing by creating opportunities for students to apply their clinical and didactic skills in a community setting. The Greater Houston Region has provided community experiences for 152 nursing students since 2012. These students engaged in curriculum development, classroom instruction and community outreach.
Specific projects included:
- Operation CLICKS and MSEARCH – electronic skill building programs focused on senior populations developing basic computer or mobile tablet device skills to access credible health information on the Internet.
- The Senior Wellness Program-Through this initiative we aim to increase awareness of healthy behavior and provide a supportive environment which empowers seniors to make healthy lifestyle choices. The purpose of this program is to support the health and well-being of seniors by facilitating the implementation of evidenced-based activities designed to increase independence and enhance the quality of life of seniors over the age of 55.
- Sunnyside Update-This project provided an opportunity to conduct a health information needs assessment project in the Sunnyside area (an economically underserved area in Houston Texas). Through this initiative, 850 residents provided valuable feedback related to how they preferred to receive health information. The Sunnyside population of approximately 21,000 is disproportionately affected by limited access to healthy food, drug use, sexually transmitted diseases, obesity related illness, criminal activity and low income.
- School Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey Project
Texas AHEC East – Greater Houston Region is partnering with the University of Texas School of Public Health at Austin, as well as the University of Texas School of Nursing at Houston to implement the School Physical Activity and Nutrition (SPAN) project. Through this initiative; 2nd, 4th, 8th, and 11th grade students across the Greater Houston region will receive basic health assessments to determine their health status and risks associated with obesity. Since its inception, over 322 school districts and 65,000 students have participated in the SPAN project.