Comprehensive Health Education
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| Teachers receiving training in asthma management. |
The Wonders of Skin: Looking Good, Being Healthy Program
The New York Academy of Medicine, Office of School Health Programs in partnership with the American Skin Association has developed a Skin Health Education Program for students in the New York City public schools, grades kindergarten through twelve. The program has been developed in collaboration with The New York City Department of Education as a supplement to comprehensive health education.
Watch our PSA on The Wonders of Skin: Looking Good, Being Healthy
The Office of School Health Programs developed The Wonders of Skin: Looking Good, Being Healthy a skin health curriculum that includes lessons on the structure and function of skin, sun safety, acne, tattooing and body piercing, and skin disorders and diseases. It is developmentally appropriate, skills-based, culturally sensitive, and aligns with national health education standards. The Office conducts training workshops for teachers in grades kindergarten through twelve on the information, skills and strategies needed to implement the curriculum.
The New York Academy of Medicine and The American Skin Association received the Gold Triangle Award for Health Community Organization Accomplishment from the American Academy of Dermatology in New York City, on August 1, 2002. The Award acknowledged the partnership between the two organizations in developing The Wonders of Skin: Looking Good, Being Healthy curriculum and the implementation of the program for students in the New York City public schools, grades kindergarten through twelve.
The Academy in partnership with the American Skin Association is disseminating the curriculum by providing curriculum, staff development, consultation and technical assistance to teachers in more than 25 school districts around the country, including Miami-Dade County Public Schools; San Francisco Unified School District; Mount Pleasant-Blythedale school district in Valhalla, New York; San Antonio Independent School District; the Bibb County School District in Macon, Georgia; and schools statewide in Maine and Delaware.
The Academy has recently developed educational materials for students in grades Kindergarten through twelve, and their parents and families, including workbooks and interactive magazines, to expand and strengthen the impact of The Wonders of Skin: Looking Good, Being Healthy curriculum.
Teacher training workshops are designed to prepare teachers to teach the curriculum and involve parents and families as part of comprehensive health education. The Office of School Health Programs would be pleased to hear from districts or schools that are interested in participating by having teachers trained to implement the curriculum. The Academy will provide the curricula materials and training at the district location, on a first-come, first-serve basis.
HEAL – Healthy Eating Active Living: A School and Community Initiative
The Office of School Health Programs is implementing the Healthy Eating Active Living: A School and Community Initiative to empower parents and caregivers of children in New York City public schools citywide to play an important role in promoting the health of their children and families. The program provides relevant, dynamic, and culturally sensitive educational experiences about ways to improve nutrition and increase physical activity to prevent obesity and diabetes.
Healthy Eating Active Living: A School and Community Initiative is designed to use a coordinated school health approach to impact changes in policy, education, and the school environment to promote healthy eating and physical activity. The goals of the program are to engage, motivate and build the capacity of the school staff to implement schoolwide health promotion activities using promising evidence-based obesity prevention strategies, and to build the capacity of parents and caregivers to help them make better food choices and increase activity patterns in the home for themselves and their families. The parent component targets parents of school children pre-K to grade 5, parents of school children with younger siblings at home, and mothers and teens in the family who are pregnant. The program is implemented in East Harlem and the Bronx.
Using the MetLife Foundation/Strang Cancer Prevention Center's A Parent's Guide to Healthy Eating and Physical Activity guidebook in English and Spanish, the Healthy Eating Active Living: A School and Community Initiative program provides parents and caregivers with a deeper understanding of ways to improve nutrition and increase physical activity. The workshop highlights the "8 Habits of Healthy Kids," "Shopping in the City," "Cooking Techniques for Healthy Families," "Menu Planning," the Food Pyramids, and other nutritional tools. The materials-rich workshops offer interactive activities focusing on high sugar content in beverages, proper serving sizes, and at-home exercises.
Building Staff Capacity to Provide Health Education in After School Settings
OSHP is collaborating with United Neighborhood Houses of New York (UNH) to develop and deliver a training program, Building Staff Capacity to Provide Health Education in After School Settings. The pilot program is designed to improve the skills of those staff members who work with early adolescents to address obesity prevention and the promotion of healthy sexuality and relationships. UNH is a membership organization of 34 settlement houses and community centers in New York City founded in 1919. UNH’s membership comprises one of the largest human service systems in New York City, with 34 agencies working at more than 400 sites to provide high quality services and activities to a half million New Yorker each year.
The Junior Fellows Program
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| Junior Fellows' Health Promotion Workshop, JFs from The Young Womens Leadership School |
In 1996, The Junior Fellows Program was initiated in one community school district for 25 students. Since then, The Junior Fellows Program has been expanded to demonstration sites in 5 Regions in the New York City Public Schools in four New York City boroughs: Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. To execute The Junior Fellows Program, the Office of School Health Programs has formed partnerships with Mt. Sinai Medical Center and New York University Downtown Hospital in Manhattan, Montefiore Medical Center, The University Hospital for the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, and North Shore University Hospital in Queens. To date, more than 975 middle and high school students have successfully participated in The Junior Fellows Program.
The Junior Fellows engage in a course of study to help them gain an awareness of current issues in health, health and medicine as career opportunities, develop their research and technology skills, and sharpen their critical thinking skills. The Junior Fellows participate in educational activities, including seminars on science enrichment and health careers.
The Junior Fellows conduct independent research in the computer lab at the Academy of Medicine, at their school and at home. Instructional sessions are held to enhance the Junior Fellows’ library and research skills through the use of online technology. The Junior Fellows work on understanding the research process, navigate the electronic medical databases at the Academy and the National Library of Medicine, and evaluate medical literature. The Junior Fellows Program culminates with presentations of their research and a graduation ceremony.
The Junior Fellows Alumni Program has been established to provide resources and networking opportunities to help the Junior Fellows graduates build and sustain their career interests in health, science, medicine and research, and to promote meaningful, peer-to-peer exchange among graduates.
In June 2005, to meet the continuing needs of the alumni, The New York Academy of Medicine initiated The Scholars Program: Science Enrichment and Career Awareness for Junior Fellows Alumni for the students as they move into high school and beyond. The program provides educational experiences for the Scholars to assist them in pursuing careers in health, science, medicine and research. The participating Scholars gain an in-depth view of the lives, careers and scientific expertise of professionals in these fields and develop a foundation of knowledge and skills needed to successfully pursue careers in these areas.
Institutional partnerships have been established with Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Weill Medical College at Cornell University, The Rockefeller University and the Columbia Genome Center. Through these partnerships, the Scholars will have opportunities to participate in seminars and laboratory experiences to study current issues, trends, and advances in science, medicine and research.
To find out more information on these initiatives, please go to the website www.juniorfellows.org.
G.I.R.L.S. (Getting into Real Life Science) and Health Professions
OSHP is implementing a three-year educational initiative, G.I.R.L.S. (Getting into Real Life Science) and Health Professions, designed to increase the participation of underrepresented minority women in careers in the sciences, medicine, health and allied health professions. The program will build on the work of Academy initiatives, including The Junior Fellows and Scholars Program and school-based Comprehensive Health Education by expanding, intensifying and deepening the educational experiences provided to girls in New York City public schools. The program will provide opportunities for underserved minority girls to build their capacity to pursue careers in the sciences, medicine, health and allied health professions, including academic support; gender-specific learning opportunities to promote resilience, 21st century life skills, and health skills development; practice with non-academic competencies such as leadership, problem-solving, higher order thinking, and public speaking skills; mentoring experiences with minority women health professionals; and educational opportunities in tandem with their mothers, caregivers, or other women in their lives who can serve as allies and support for their career goals.
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