In the summer of 2019, I was hired as a Health Communications Fellow by the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion. I joined a small but spirited team made up of Dr. Alejandra Aguirre, Dr. Carly Hutchinson, and Ms. Dora Ventura. Over the course of the summer, Project REACH (Reach & Engage to Advance Community Health) was born, as we worked together to develop an exciting fellowship that would be piloted in the fall of 2019. A pre-pilot had already taken place in the previous year, however our team was planning to revamp the program completely. Together, we developed an innovative and engaging curriculum for a ten-week fellowship that would bring together graduate students and representatives from local community-based organizations (CBOs), to collaborate on building their health communication and community engagement knowledge and skills. 

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As Health Communications Fellow, I was charged with:

• Developing Project REACH as a recognizable brand 

• Creating an engaging social media presence to promote our mission

• Planning and implementing a recruitment plan to enroll 4 CBO's and 4 graduate students 

• Coordinating our efforts to implement the program in the fall of 2019

• Working with our planning team and guest speakers to craft lesson plans for engaging sessions which would facilitate active participation

• Developing survey instruments and interview guides to implement a process and outcome evaluation of the pilot

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In Fall 2019, I was hired as Lead Fellow to continue working with the team as we implemented and evaluated the pilot.

 

We not only met but surpassed our goals! In total, we received 16 applications from students (14 more than had been received during the pre-pilot phase), and were able to enroll 2 students per team (double our goal). 7 representatives from 4 CBOs participated in the pilot - each CBO representing a unique facet of health, and a different population. We were able to successfully implement the pilot, and iteratively adapted the curriculum over the 10 week period based on feedback from participants, and guest speakers. The 4 teams each developed a flyer and a promotional video as deliverables for the fellowship.

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In addition to the wealth of knowledge that I gained from this experience, it was truly exciting to be so closely involved with and to watch the various stages of program planning, implementation and evaluation that I had read about in my courses, unfold in front of me. I was able to watch principles of community engagement, cultural humility and human-centered design come to life, as we worked together with different stakeholders to make Project REACH truly equitable and bidirectional.

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I remain in contact with the Project REACH team, which has grown since I graduated. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it many challenges, and I am looking forward to watching Project REACH grow and evolve as it is offered in virtual format in 2021. Please visit the Project REACH instagram page here for more information.