REACH
Resident Education in Advocacy and Community Health

University of Connecticut Pediatric Residency
Advocacy Program

Beginning in July, 2010, the REACH program is available to three selected residents per entering class.  It builds on the Community Longitudinal Experience (CLE), currently a curriculum component for every resident.  The CLE will continue for the remainder of the residency class.

Curriculum
Residents in REACH will be given a half day per week (during most blocks) to participate in a series of required didactic and experiential exercises, working with department and University faculty, as well as with community and government programs and agencies.  Several evening sessions will permit attendance by a broader representation of faculty, community partners, and other residents, and will encourage open exchange of ideas. 

Topics for study within the program include:

• Needs assessment
• Community asset mapping
• Rapid ethnographic assessment
• Community health
• International health
• Social determinants of health
• Health disparities and inequities
• Cultural competence

Program / project development

• Use of surveys, focus groups, data
• Writing grants
• Working with foundations
• Working with the IRB
• Developing community partnerships
• Working with multiple partners
• Writing an abstract
• Presenting
• Progam / project evaluation
• Service learning

Advocacy

• Legislative advocacy
• Poverty law
• Working with the media
• Health policy
• Health education
• Families as partners
• IEP workshop

Projects
Residents in REACH will have the traditional continuity clinic for one half day per week.  In addition, they will have a second half day per week in which to visit communities and community programs, identify a project, and bring it to completion.  The use of two block electives will allow residents time to work on the project in more depth.  Project outcomes will be presented in both poster and grand rounds formats.

In the final year of residency, REACH residents will coordinate and produce a “Community Conversation”; they will identify a key topic affecting children in the community, identify and recruit community leaders and activists, and moderate a discussion on the topic. This same evening will serve as a backdrop for other graduating residents to present, in poster format, the outcomes of their CLE projects.

Process

Applicants interested in the REACH program should apply through the categorical residency application.