Community Engaged Experiences
I've had many opportunities to promote community engagement, ranging from collaborating with community workers in Vietnam to create an environment where those with disabilities are treated appropriately, to creating a program that promotes social support and virtual community engagement among older adults. The following are three experiences where I felt I made an impact and promoted community engagement in the process.
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Rehabilitation Assistant, The Green LionIn the spring of 2019, I flew to Vietnam to work with the Green Lion, an organization focusing on different needs in the surrounding area. The Green Lion had a partnership with a local Orthopedics and Rehabilitation hospital where the organization team worked closely with the department of mental health to create programs and initiatives for children with disabilities. Most of the disabilities present were due to the gas agent orange, a gas that was sprayed on the Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. The gas resulted in genetic defects for those who were exposed to the gas. Even though it is the grandparents of the children that I worked with who were exposed to the gas, the genetic defects can be passed down to later generations.
My team and I were tasked with engaging community health workers associated with the hospital in different health and wellness programs, with the hope that they would be able to sustain the program and promote health and wellness of children with disabilities in the community once my team and I were no longer in the country. Many community health workers were interested in this partnership, but needed to learn the skills to carry out wellbeing activities. We created three different initiatives to focus on: Enhance fine motor skills, Promote reading and writing skills, and Increase flexibility and physical activity. Every day we worked on each initiative during different times of the day. Not all community health workers could attend at all times, but it was still beneficial to have them attend at least a few times a week. Each day consisted of different activities focusing all three initiatives. By the end of my time at the clinic, the community health workers seemed comfortable and excited to be carrying out the different initiatives, but I still found some flaws in this partnership. It was great to see community engagement being used to promote health and wellness among children with disabilities, but it was still unclear who would be taking my role (and the other team members' roles) when we left. The organization was under the impression that they've had many individuals show interest in being rehabilitative assistants, so it would not be a problem, but now due to COVID-19, no "abroad" rehabilitative assistants are allowed in the country. I have recently talked to the director of the program, she stated that it has been difficult time, but they are managing. One other flaw of this program was that everyone had the excitement to carryout this program, but there was a lack of knowledge and resources to create specific activities. For example, for the children with cerebral palsy, we were asked to help them perform a few stretching exercises, and when I asked the director who decided that these specific exercises were the most beneficial, my director replied with "I am actually not sure, they seem beneficial for the children." They did not have access to a physical therapist at the time, but I recommended that they reached out to another department in the hospital that may be able to help with teaching the staff the best ways for the children to exercise and stretch based on their disability. Co-Researcher, "Unwind Your Mind"As apart of my advanced programming course, my research team and I created a program for older adults attending the Weston Senior Center, focusing on de-stressing during COVID-19 through virtual community engagement. As we only had one semester to create the program, we were unable to implement. Nevertheless, we worked with the senior center staff and stakeholders throughout the entire program development period, and they have been given the "blue prints" to carry out this program when they are able and ready.
My team and I used a community-based model to create the program. The Precede-Proceed Model was used to address the many variables ranging from policy regulation to educational and ecological assessments (Precede-Proceed phases located to the left). When we conducted our social assessment (phase 1), we found that community engagement and social support was incredibly important to the older adults attending the center. This being said, we ensured to include social support as our most important enabling factor. COVID-19 required citizens to quarantine for many months to limit exposure to the virus. It was important for older adults to quarantine, as they were assumed to be more at risk for acquiring the virus. As the older adults were unable to attend the senior center, most had to stay in their homes in isolation. My team and I created a virtual program called "Unwind your Mind", that created a space for older adults to come together a few times a week to engage in conversations associated with de-stressing during COVID-19. On Mondays, we planned on providing content and a de-stress activities for the adults to try before Thursday, when the group would come back together and have a conversation about their experience participating in de-stressing/mindful activities. It is anticipated that the program would be 8 weeks long, with continuous check-ins once a week (or once a month, depending on the adults and their interest in chatting). The purpose of the program is to promote community engagement in a virtual setting during quarantine. It is anticipated that every Thursday is solely for conversation and catching up with fellow senior center members (and for reflections on content). Specific information on this program can be read in my final project paper. Founder, English in SaigonDuring my time in Vietnam, I had difficulty speaking to many of the community health workers as their English was minimal (and my Vietnamese was little to none). I found that many of the community health workers were jumping at the chance to practice their English with me, as English lessons were very expensive in the community. When I returned to the US, I worked with a community health worker for 6 month via facebook video messenger to create "English in Saigon", a free internet based english tutoring program. The community worker that I worked with initially is now the co-founder and director of Vietnam communications. Her role consists of finding individuals in the community who are looking for English lessons, while my role is to find and teach future tutors prior to working with a student. I am also in charge of pairing students with a tutor based on their interests and what they would like to work on (reading, writing, speaking, etc.). We now have 5 tutors volunteering to teach English lessons to individuals living in Vietnam.
This has been a very rewarding experience for me. It has been interesting to see that we are engaging the community while being entirely remote, and it is really neat to see community health workers and community members finding importance in this group. |