IMPACT minutes 9.22.08

Ok. Here it goes:

First, turns out the Housing Partnerships training for this week was Tuesday at 7pm...sorry I didn't get that out earlier. I'm going to send the volunteer coordinator an e-mail letting her know there are three or four people who weren't at either training session but are interested in volunteering and were wondering if they could come this Saturday anyway. I'll let you all know what she says.

Now for the actual minutes:

Updates
James City County Social Services -- Jeewon got in touch with them, but no one who knew the demographics was in. She'll call again when they are there.
Housings Partnerships -- THIS SATURDAY from 8:30am-1pm. Meet in the PBK parking lot. Need to be trained first (see note above).
Make A Difference Day -- Probably not going to do this, because work isn't exactly what we though it would be.
Community Action Agency -- Emily still working on getting in touch with them.
Human Services -- Long still trying to get in touch.
Hospice -- Once again, not quite what was imagined at first (paid service, not free we believe). BUT Lisa mentioned Edmarck, a non-profit organization that does hospice care in the Hampton Roads area. So we will look into that?

Youth Service America
Grace mentioned it. We would develop a project and then submit it to the above organization for a grant to do the project. Potential???

Woolcock Funding/Advertising
Clare will contact Devin about what we currently have, but we still need some as-of-right-now undetermined amount of money.
[note: I cannot find the advertising minutes right now, but I'll send them out as soon as I get my hands on them.]


And that is all!

- Kate

Re: [ihuman] Important Information and Minutes from 9.9.08

So I hope this works...

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get in touch with Sarah, but I still plan on heading over to the Food Bank tomorrow...and I realize this is pretty short notice but if anyone would like to join me please give me a call! My number's 610 308 7161, and I only have one class tomorrow from 2-3:20 so I'm free the rest of the day to go.

Hope everyone's having a fabulous week!

KB

Minutes from 9.9.08

So apparently attachments don't post when e-mailed to the blog...anyway, here are the minutes:

Monday, 8 September 2008 – General Meeting

Kate and Clare started with the Introduction/Framework of IMPACT humanity

• IMPACT humanity’s primary mission is to help mitigate poverty in our (the
  Williamsburg) community
  - Our focus, at least for this semester, is on local poverty issues, though we will
  address some principles of global poverty and efforts against it later in the year
• In order to be able to address local poverty, we will be learning about poverty in the
  area through working with local organizations that serve the poor and the
  economically disadvantaged in Williamsburg and James City County
• Three general things will come out of these service experiences:
  · We will become more educated about poverty in Williamsburg
  · We can then act on this knowledge against poverty in the Williamsburg
  community
  · We will then be able to teach the greater William and Mary community what we
  have learned

Jeewon and Grace continued by talking about the Research/Reasons Behind Service with Pre-existing Organizations

• Research will be done by teams who will focus on work with a particular organization
• These teams will then teach the rest of the group what they learned through the
  service education experience
• Reasons for Working with Other Organizations
  - To learn about what is already being done about poverty in Williamsburg
  - To better understand the causes of poverty in Williamsburg
  - To understand better what we can do to contribute to the efforts already being
  carried out by other organizations

Katie and Karen then discussed Organizations We Will Work With

• Housing Partnerships
• Avalon
• Head Start
• Food Bank
• Dream Catchers
• Tutoring at local churches hosting programs for elementary school children in need of
  tutoring (branching off of a Sharpe scholars program from last year)

Long and John presented an Example of What We Mean (Lackey Free Clinic) – see Long’s e-mail/post for more information

Important Information and Minutes from 9.9.08

Hello to everyone!

Thanks to all who came out this Monday! For those of you unable to make it, you missed out on a very informative meeting (and some really good cookies), but I wrote it all down in the minutes just for you.

Some IMPORTANT INFORMATION...
- Our website (all minutes will be posted here, as well as relevant articles/"reports") --> www.wm.edu/so/impacthumanity
- If anyone is interested in going to the Food Bank, contact KB (kebrower@wm.edu).
- High Impact Ultimate Frisbee – THIS Thursday (9/11) at 10pm in the Sunken Gardens

NEXT WEEK's General Meeting
- When: Monday, 15 September 2008; 8pm
- Where: Tucker 114
- We will have a comprehensive list of organizations and will continue to split into groups.
- KB and Sarah will speak about the Food Bank OR Grace and Jeewon and Kat will speak about Dream Catchers.

Have a wonderful week!

Kate Chelak
Chair of Communications
klchelak@wm.edu

~~~
The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit. [nelson henderson]

Lessons from Lackey Clinic

Attention Poverty Fighters,

The test of the Impact Humanity listserv is now complete. We apologize for the previous message, and assure you that the individual who did not understand the listserv has now been vanquished.

Today, during the meeting, we discussed our recent expedition to Lackey Free Clinic, a nonprofit health care facility that serves the underprivileged of Williamsburg and Yorktown. Beginning as a one-room clinic in a local church in 1995, Lackey Clinic now serves 5,400 patients throughout the region, filling 28,394 prescriptions and providing over $5 million worth of health care services to the area per year. Given the high cost of providing emergency care, the Lackey staff estimates a total savings of $4 million to area urgent care facilities.

We asked Mrs. Olivette Burroughs, the chief TPC (The Pharmacy Connection) staff member, "What situations or circumstances cause patients to turn to Lackey for care?" She cited numerous factors, including:
-Unemployment
-Marital status (often, spouses who are dependents are stranded after a divorce)
-Education (many patients have less than a high school diploma, which makes it difficult to find employment)
-Language barriers (often further exacerbating the job search; many seek shelter with friends or live in homeless shelters)
-Being undocumented (also makes it difficult to find work)
-Mental illness and mental health
-Being formerly incarcerated (makes it hard to find a job-- a common theme here)
-Many work, but their employers do not provide insurance

As you can see, many of the factors that cause patients to come to Lackey for medical services also contribute to poverty in general. Although Lackey caters primarily to the "working poor," many of its patients do not work, often because they cannot find a job. We were told one story of a patient who had eight people in her family, went to Social Services for food stamps, and was turned down because her income was $2 over the limit.

We also asked, "What are the five most common diseases, illnesses, and conditions reported by patients at the clinic?" They are:
1) Acute injury
2) Asthma / COPD
3) Autoimmune disorders
4) Cardiovascular disease
5) High cholesterol

In addition, to get a sense of the epidemiological profile of Lackey's patients, we inquired, "What are the five most-commonly prescribed drugs at Lackey?" They are:
1) Protonix (ulcers, GERD)
2) Cymbalta (depression)
3) Norvasc (hyptertension)
4) Nexium (depression)
5) Lipitor (cholesterol)

Relating this local data to global health, it is evident in both cases that poverty renders people more vulnerable to health emergencies, and poor health contributes to poverty. Circumstances that hinder the flourishing health of the underpriviledged include lack of access to health care, antibiotic resistance, overcrowded living conditions, and poor nutrition (which leads to compromised immune systems). Especially damaging to underdeveloped countries is the rise of urban air pollution from economic development and a curious rise in tobacco use (smoking in general, by comparison, has tended to decrease in developed countries).

The underprivileged of developing nations face different challenges. While Lackey's patients report primarily chronic conditions (diabetes, hypertension, CVD, depression), much of the developing world confronts the threat of many infectious diseases. These include:
-Lower respiratory inflections, especially pneumonia
-Diarrhea (cholera, rotovirus, e. coli) - exacerbated by poor sanitation and contaminated drinking water
-TB (90% of cases occuring in the developing world, risk exacerbated by HIV/AIDS)
-Malaria and measles (partly responsible for high rates of infant and child mortality)
-HIV/AIDS (almost a subject unto itself)

Thus, while poverty impedes access to health care and lack of health care contributes to poverty both locally and globally, the epidemiological profile-- that is, the various diseases and conditions faced by the underprivileged, varies.

That's all for now,
-(Long)

http://www.lackeyfreeclinic.com/about.html
http://www.globalhealth.org/view_top.php3?id=228
http://www.globalhealth.org/view_top.php3?id=229

UPDATE: "Two other prominent diseases are Diabetes and Hypertension. A medication associated with Diabetes is Novolin."