Program areas at MEDICC
Community partnerships for health equity (cphe): -milwaukee cphe: fathers making progress, (fmp), "boys 2 leaders: schools 2 communities (b2l)" has continued the intergenerational learning and healing that was started during earlier projects, with an increased scale (the addition of a second school site/neighborhood) and increased focus on community impact. The project has conducted intergenerational topic-based workshops between the facilitators of fathers making progress (fmp) and juniors and seniors at both shalom high school and nova high school.-milwaukee cphe: innovative leaders for water solutions. This youth program allowed the community water services to share their mission with young people who were trained to protect the water from avoidable health hazards. Most of the students were freshmen who became aware of both the issues and opportunities related to water quality. with a community-based focus, the students plan on involving and working with their families in order to continue building trust and understanding in the community. Working together, they plan to create a movement to become a contaminant-free community through awareness and collaboration.-albuquerque cphe: community health specialists. The health professionals (international Medical graduates who cannot practice in the us, because their credentials are not recognized) had the opportunity to meet with four members of the house of representatives for the state of new mexico. The group was able to share with them the different ideas that have been generated through their weekly meetings. They shared with the elected officials their willingness to join the health sector in any viable capacity that could meet the needs of the population.-albuquerque cphe: los pioneros. Youth leaders shared their knowledge and raised consciousness among other students in order to help them deepen their comprehension of environmental risks in their communities. They used games, various interactive activities, and presentations at community gatherings and in classrooms with the ultimate goal of reducing environmental health concerns.
Md pipeline to community service: -mnisi scholarship: the thabo mnisi scholarship defrays the significant financial burden of preparing for and taking the licensing exams required for becoming a physician in the us. This year again, the scholarship provided 32 us elam students and graduates with test preparation materials, mentorship opportunities, exam fees, and other resources. The financial burden of these hurdles only continues to grow, with typical prep and exam fees now at approximately $5,000-$7,000 per student over several years, and more funding to support elam student's exam costs is needed.since our last report, individual awards have continued to shift per needs of students and changes to exam regulations/exam availability. Many awardees will likely not be able to take exams as planned by the end of 2023, but due to the flexibility of some rollover funding, we have "extended" their awards until early february. Applications will be processed in january, and awards announced in february once funding is clear.-community connections summer rotations: provides us elam students and graduates with clinical rotations in community health settings nationwide, a prerequisite for admission to post-graduate training and ultimately to clinical practice in the us. Many sites have still not returned to offering pre-pandemic opportunities for med students; however, medicc was able to arrange 5 rotations nationwide in 2023. We were also able to secure partnerships with new sites for 2023 and beyond.-pathways to residency: our pathways to residency component supports us elam graduates through the residency application and matching process, and prepares the more advanced students as well. For 2023, medicc is currently working with recent graduates to support conference attendance (aafp, fmec, and any other conferences identified by grads as important for them) and support steady progress through all the requirements, some new in 2023, for foreign Medical graduates to qualify for the match.
Gateways travel program: since the last board meeting in july 2023, medicc gateways has completed two trips: the leavitt group traveled november 5-9 with 15 participants; the journal editors group traveled december 3-8 with 14 participants.coming up, the gateways program currently has nine (9) trips planned for 2024 and one (1) trip planned for 2025. Given that gateways travel was paused during the pandemic, this is a very promising outlook for the future of the program.