School of Public Health partners with Girl Scouts to develop program for hospitalized children
As part of an ongoing effort to provide experiential learning opportunities for students outside of the classroom, the West Virginia University School of Public Health finds partners that will help students best apply public health concepts to the real world.
Hospital Helpers is a new community service program co-developed by School of Public Health undergraduate students—now graduates—in coordination with Girl Scouts of Black Diamond.
The program, developed as part of Assistant Professor Elizabeth Claydon’s Introduction to Social and Behavioral Sciences and Practice course, helps address a need that was initially identified by Girl Scouts, and will be a source of support for children in the hospital. The School of Public Health works with the WVU Center for Community Engagement to find partners who can engage with its students—just like those in Claydon’s course.
“One of the best ways to learn about public health concepts is to see the concepts applied in action,” Claydon said. “Service-learning allows that to happen by partnering our students with both local and state-wide community partners that can help them gain a practice-based experience. This also ensures that both the service-learning organization and our students will gain something from the experience, which creates a reciprocal relationship.”
Girl Scouts of Black Diamond initially created the idea of a patch program that would connect its members with hospitals and requested the help of the School of Public Health’s students to create the program, which enables Girl Scouts to collect and donate items in need to health care systems, along with notes of encouragement and well wishes to children in the hospital. Six students—Kadi Arndt, Madison Bulling, Sydney Durrah, Shelby McCloskey, Ana Villabona and Gabriele Youngerman—researched hospitals across the state and their requirements for what could be brought in or made for children who were sick, as well as hospital wish lists.
“The goal of this Public Health course is always to ensure that the community partners identify a need that our students will help to meet,” Claydon said. “We try to ensure also that we think about sustainability so that what we do with our community partners can last beyond our semester relationship with them. For our students, the goal is to ensure they learn to work with the community and learn key course concepts such as social determinants of health and theory more in depth through application.”
Claydon further explained that it is important for Public Health students to have this service-learning experience because the students better understand what they are being taught when they are also able to apply it in a more hands-on manner. She taught the students about the importance of working with the community, but they understand the concept more fully when they are working directly with the community and learning to meaningfully communicate and engage.
Shelby McCloskey’s role involved building partnerships through contacting hospitals within the Girl Scouts Black Diamond network. She also served as a resource for her peers to provide materials related to the program, such as finding and distributing items that the hospitals needed most. McCloskey enjoyed that her peers and the Girl Scouts had a shared passion.
“The most valuable takeaway I had from working on this program is that we were all capable of so much more than we think we are, even as undergraduate students,” said McCloskey, who is now a medical advocate at Domestic Violence Intervention of Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. “My peers and I loved the initiative of this program, and to see the impact we are able to have on community members across several states is amazing. I hope the Girl Scouts and their troop leaders love what they do on their journey to earn this patch.”
Sydney Durrah, now a graduate student at George Washington University, provided the framework for the beginning stages of the service project while enrolled in Claydon’s course. She also created ways for the Girl Scouts to give and collect items and developed an etiquette guide on how to use appropriate language when communicating with children and their families in the hospital.
“The opportunity to work with a large organization like Girl Scouts is an invaluable experience,” Durrah said. “This project prepared me program development as well as working on a team, which has prepared me for the work I am currently doing with maternal and child health.”
The School of Public Health will be a year-long financial sponsor for the program and the Girl Scouts patches. Girl Scouts aims to implement Hospital Helpers across 61 counties in four states, enabling its members from across the region to develop empathy and compassion, leadership skills and a broader understanding of community needs while bringing joy to children receiving care.
"Girl Scouts are committed to making the world a better place. And, through this program, our girls are able to help make a difference in the lives of the youngest members of our community in need," said Beth Casey, CEO of the Girl Scouts of Black Diamond. "Hospital Helpers will create opportunities for girls to give back in new ways and bring some cheer to children at the same time."
“I am so honored that the School of Public Health is a sponsor for the Hospital Helpers program,” Claydon said. “It shows a commitment to our students, to engaging with the community and to service learning as a valuable pedagogy, especially for public health.
“This program illustrates what our students can do, even at an undergraduate level, with time, dedication and passion for their purpose. I am truly proud of the students who helped to create this program and grateful for the Center for Community Engagement for all it does to make service learning possible.”
-WVU-
sd/12/22/22
CONTACT: Nikky Luna, Director of Marketing and Communications
WVU School of Public Health
304.293.1699; nikky.luna@hsc.wvu.edu