MbShea@PWP@English@UMCP

For the abstract,

Public health is an ever-growing field of study that focuses on promoting and protecting the health of individuals and their community. Public health can be a global initiative or simple reminders to wash your hands. It’s something that’s entwined in our everyday lives and it’s something you can be a part of. No matter your major, there is a place for you in public health. Getting involved in your community, or those across borders, can be a long and frustrating process, especially if you’re new. Here is a compiled guide to give you a quick run-down on what to expect when planning and implementing a public health project. Through this guide we will see the best practices for researching and choosing a health disparity to focus on and then motivating a team to follow you forward with it. This is often observation in your community or a request for help from another. Assessments will be key in determining the need and effectiveness of your intervention, always remember to keep the community and their needs in focus. To better picture the overarching goal we will reference existing projects and case studies to see how planning and implementing projects work in real time. These examples will reveal some frustrations that will be encountered. Throughout the guide we will teach about the basic structures of public health and how to best stay oriented towards the intended goal.

Word Count: 234

For the Reader's Response,

Encouraging people outside of the public health field is what leads to things like voluntourism. It brings people who don’t understand the purpose and goals of public health in to take part in a personal publicity agenda to ease their conscience and seem ‘cool’. It also brings people in to see public health has a vessel to get to things they benefit them, such as governments that poise as public health interventions to gather information for their own gain (CIA). We shouldn’t send ‘new people’ out and expect a good intervention but instead make them have a level of health education beforehand.

K, do not forget to consider where this document will "live" -- in the new PHWB's chapter on campus that you helped found. :)

I want you to work with JY and EK to share your documents. Perfect compliments to each other, and can be used for both EWB and PHWB service activities.

Do you have three or so cases for illustration? Positive cases? Any example cases of what not to do? I would expect you need outside sources on these stories to support your main argument.