Comprehensive Health and Safety Education
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| Teachers receiving training in asthma management. |
To expand the scope of comprehensive school health programs, the Office initiated the Safety Makes Sense! program in collaboration with the New York City Department of Education. This program is designed to prevent unintentional injuries in the school environment. Using the concept that “safety is everybody’s business,” the Office has developed the Safety Makes Sense! Handbook on Safety and Unintentional Injury Prevention for Elementary Schools. The Office conducts training for classroom teachers and interdisciplinary staff teams to raise awareness and increase activities to prevent unintentional injuries in and around schools.
Moving from Crisis to Hope and Well-Being
Throughout New York City, health and education agencies and institutions played a crucial role in helping children and families cope with the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Immediate responses to the trauma included crisis intervention, access to counseling services, and advocacy for youth, families and communities affected by the tragedy. Yet many new realities — uncertainty about the future, personal health and safety, an upsurge in terrorism, and war - have produced a continued sense of urgency for the people of New York City and call for long-range intervention and prevention efforts.
To address this need, the Office of School Health Programs is implementing Moving from Crisis to Hope and Well-Being, a proactive, multidimensional approach to rebuilding the well-being of school communities. The program addresses the mental and emotional health component of comprehensive health education in support of literacy and academic achievement. The program supports the empowerment and resiliency of school staff, students, parents, and families, and emphasizes essential mental and emotional health skills that are needed to cope with a wide range of life situations.
Training workshops are conducted to help teachers in grades kindergarten through twelve enhance literacy and support their educational goals through the integration of emotional and mental health skills in the classroom including how to cope with stress, manage feelings, express concern for others, and communicate effectively. Training workshops are designed to help families understand how to increase protective factors at home to build student success and resiliency and encourage positive ways to move forward after crisis.
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.
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 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.
Partnering with Parents for Healthy Children
The Office of School Health Programs is implementing the Partnering with Parents for Healthy Children program 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.
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 Partnering with Parents for Healthy Children 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.
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 750 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.
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