THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 7, 1994 TAG: 9407040183
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: IN THE NEIGHBORHOODS
SOURCE: Mike Knepler
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Sometime this summer, a group of middle-school students will help their inner-city neighbors learn more about nutrition.
The scene will be a community health fair at the middle school.
Students will muster neighbors and run exhibit booths.
Some kids already have given blood-pressure tests to neighbors and helped teach health to elementary school pupils.
Sound like a good program? So, why no local publicity?
The answer: this program operates out of J.P. Turner Middle School in Philadelphia, Pa.
It ought to be in Norfolk.
Some basics: The Neighborhood Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Program was organized by the West Philadelphia Improvement Corps. WEPIC is a partnership between the University of Pennsylvania and the community.
The university provides faculty and students from an assortment of disciplines, including dental, nursing, nutrition and anthropology.
The kids not only get a strong dose of health education but work closely with teachers and health professionals. Some examples:
Sixth graders spend six weeks on oral health and hygiene. Lessons include a review of dental careers and what it takes to get into college.
The course culminates in an oral health screening for students. Those who need dental work are referred to dentists or clinics.
Seventh graders, as peer teachers, help give health lessons to elementary school children.
Seventh graders also organize two or three health fairs a year. Recent events focused on injury prevention, cancer and AIDS.
Selected eighth graders spend time observing health professionals in nearby hospitals and clinics. Students are exposed to 129 different jobs, ranging from doctors and administrators to food-service workers and other support staff.
A major feature of the middle-school health curriculum is that lessons are integrated and reinforced in other classes.
University anthropologists help students devise surveys on neighborhood attitudes and beliefs about health, access to doctors and other medical concerns.
Students compile results in math classes and write about them in language arts. They also make group presentations.
``Every health activity is followed by an outreach event,'' such as peer teaching or health fairs, said Cory Bowman of the university's program for public service.
``That's our key philosophy. It's health education through actual improvement activities, as opposed to health education by rote.''
One result worth noting: Standardized test scores for participating students increased 14 percent while classmates in regular curriculum improved six percent. The figures are from the 1991-92 school year, the last available.
Norfolk's Mayor Mason C. Andrews says the city should look at the Philadelphia program. Health, he said, would be one part of ``a broader spectrum that prepares students for life, employment and neighborhood activism.''
Another focus, Andrews likes, ``is finding ways to use the school building beyond normal school hours and make that experience a meaningful one.''
For information, contact Penn Programs for Public Service, 133 S. 36th St., Suite 519, Philadelphia, Pa. 19104, or call 215-898-0289. MEMO: Comment or suggestion for Mike Knepler: please call 446-2275 or write
The Compass, P.O. Box 449, Norfolk, Va. 23501.
by CNB