Community Outreach & Advocacy
As a residency, we have decided to focus our efforts within community outreach and advocacy to four main areas of emphasis that affect the health of our patients and community. We strive to address how racism and other systemic influences perpetuate societal inequities, and thus anti-racism serves as a foundational theme incorporated into each area of emphasis. Each group is led by a resident and faculty champion. This structure provides residents the opportunity to immerse themselves within community groups while faculty serve as a point of continuity. Residents may then effectively balance their clinical obligations with work in the community, while faculty are available as a constant presence in strengthening our community relationships.
LGBTQI+ Health Community Medicine Group
The LGBTQi Health group aims to improve access and quality of healthcare for LGBTQI+ communities through partnership, service, and education. We also work to continue to foster, expand, and strengthen both new and existing relationships with local, national, and international LGBTQI+ advocacy and support organizations. We are currently partnered with Camp Ten Trees (https://camptentrees.org,) Lambert House (http://www.lamberthouse.org) , and Entre Hermanos (https://entrehermanos.org) .
Reproductive Justice Community Medicine Group
The Reproductive Justice group aims to support the human rights of reproductive justice as defined by SisterSong, i.e. to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities. Residents in in the Reproductive Justice group will work with our community partners, SURGE (https://www.surgereprojustice.org) and the Open Arms doulas (https://www.openarmsps.org) on projects supporting reproductive justice in our community.
Health Access & Outreach Community Medicine Group
The goal of our group is to improve healthcare access through outreach to our community and partnership with existing programs and schools. Our current working projects are as follows:
Doctor for a Day and Pipeline Work: Partnership with UW SOM Center for Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion to provide outreach to youth of color in the Seattle area. Our is goal is to eventually work with local school(s) to build a summer shadowing program with our residents and faculty.
Community Health Boards: Involvement in several community health boards such as the Ethiopian (https://www.ecseattle.org) and Somali (https://somalihealthboard.org) Health Boards to further advocate for our immigrant patients, including organizing annual health fairs for these communities.
UW School of Medicine Free Clinics: Partnership with UW SOM to provide educational opportunities for residents to work closely with medical students and provide medical care for low-access communities around the Seattle area.
Housing and Homelessness Community Medicine Group
The Homelessness Community Medicine group is focused on creating community partnerships with organizations and individuals experiencing homelessness. We are currently strengthening existing connections with King County Health Care for the Homeless Network, Public Health Nursing's Kid's Plus Program for homeless families, Mary's Place family shelter (https://www.marysplaceseattle.org), as well as Seattle's tiny home communities (https://lihi.org/tiny-houses/tiny-house-village). Residents will be involved in direct health education of families as well as advocacy aimed at optimizing the health and wellbeing of those living homeless.