Advocacy and Community Outreach

All residents, primarily during their intern year, participate in a one month advocacy rotation. This rotation serves multiple purposes—it exposes residents to community agencies that serve impoverished children and their families, provides exposure to schools in the community and improves understanding of the business side of pediatrics. 

Residents are assigned to a variety of sites for ½ day-1 day sessions and to various schools from elementary through high school. Examples include WIC program, daycare licensing, hospice, child protection team along with foster family home visitation.

Residents have a set of activities to complete for each site. In addition, there are a variety of independent study activities that are done throughout the month. After this initial exposure, residents can opt for a more intensive elective later in their training in School Health, Child Abuse/Neglect with the Child Protection Team, Rural Health, or by conducting an advocacy project.

A variety of community volunteer opportunities occur throughout the year. Examples of prior experiences include:

• Health fairs at both urban and rural sites
• Community talks (coaches, parents, schools, Great American Teach-In)
• High school sports team coverage
• Participation in community boards
• Participation in annual events such as the YMCA's Healthy Kids Day
• Child Abuse Holiday Toy Drive
• Attendance at camps for children with chronic disease such as Diabetes Camp and Boggy Creek Camp
  

Legislative Advocacy and the AAP

Residents have participated in legislative activities by attending Children's Week in Tallahassee and AAP Legislative Conferences in Washington, DC as well as actively participating in the AAP Resident Section both in state and nationally. Florida has an extremely active Resident Section for which USF Residents have provided key leadership. USF Residents have served as Chair of the section many times in recent years and Dr. Dabrow, Program Director, has served as the group’s faculty advisor since its inception. She serves on the FL AAP Executive Board and on the National AAP Committee for Resident Scholarships. 

For the 2017-18 year, Dr. Elissa Engel serves as the Chair of the FL Resident Section, and Dr. Jillian Hagerman serves as the Co-Chair. USF has one of the most active programs in the state.

Many of our residents have been applied for and been awarded AAP CATCH grants. Past projects have involved providing health care and education to refugee families and peer support for obese children along with last year focusing on resilience in families.

USF Residents participated in a National HPV Project in 2015 and 2016  and in 2016, Dr. Kim Law, Dr. Michelle Blanco, Dr. Tracy Burton and Dr. Jennifer Takagishi received an AAP grant to encourage dental health, literacy, and improved sleep habits in young children. The project is called "Brush, Book, Bed".It was presented at both statewide and national meetings.

Advocacy Projects

USF has an active Reach Out and Read (ROR) Program which is the oldest in the state. The program is active at both continuity clinic sites. We work with undergraduates at USF who provide volunteer reading in our waiting rooms along with having the opportunity to shadow residents in the clinic.  It is a great win-win program.