Development and Implementation of Educational Outreach Programs for Oakland and Neighboring Communities

Abstract

Community members are becoming more proactive in their health care decisions, and many individuals are seeking more information regarding the function and maintenance of various body systems, disease prevention, and lifestyle choices that can impact their personal health. In turn, many universities have mission statements and goals to create community connections and provide educational programs on various health related topics. To meet the needs of community and university members, educational outreach programs can be established. Several outreach programs regarding brain health and safety have been created for Oakland area school children in grades K‐12 and an educational brain event for families and community members. The K‐12 outreach programs are designed within the needs of the curriculum content and grade level of the students. Classroom teachers are consulted for topic requests and length (time) of program that fit into their lesson plans and schedules. Programs vary from 1 hour to several hours to a 4 week mini course and cover topics ranging from neuroanatomy to sensory systems to drug effects on the nervous system.Saturday outreach events are designed to be family friendly and serve to educate both children and adults through interactive hands‐on poster stations presented by university students and lectures by selected invited guest speakers. Assessments from all programs are administered in the form of pre and post tests for K‐12 programs and surveys for participants of the Saturday community educational events.