Funded Projects

Community-driven Educational and Supportive Workshops

Project Year

2025

City & State

Atlanta, Georgia

Program Name

CATCH Resident

Topic

Health Education & Prevention

Program Description

Problem: The United States is a country where people come to achieve the American Dream. Immigrants from all over the world attempt to attain this dream. There are around 23.4 million children in the U.S., of which children of immigrants make up 22% under the age of 6 and 20% between the ages of 6 to 17 [2]. Compared to American children, immigrant children are twice as likely not to have healthcare access [1]. In 2014, 1 in 5 children lived in households with incomes that were below the federal poverty threshold ($23,834 for a family of 4) [3]. Children living in underserved communities face multiple challenges in school including lack of access to resources, family’s financial strains, language barriers, and poverty. In return, parents feel helpless, socially isolated, and judged. Thus, there is a need for parents and children who are living in underserved communities to feel empowered, engaged, and involved with school activities and community-driven events.  Primary setting: Doraville United Elementary school will be our primary setting. I had the chance to tour this campus during our residency Community rotation. This elementary school is located in Dekalb county. Although we will be working at this site, our hope is that we can disseminate the resources that are provided at this school to other counties around Georgia.   Number of children: At Doraville United Elementary School, there are more than 700 children enrolled, of which 99% are minorities and 91% are economically disadvantaged. Majority of the students are come from a Latino background. In 2023, more than 22% of children lived below 250% of the poverty line. In the 2023 Dekalb County Population profile, more than 9% identified as Hispanic or Latino [9]. As a native Spanish-speaking provider, I am committed to using my bilingual skills to increase access to healthcare services, education, and mentorship at a predominantly Spanish-speaking school.   Project goal: Our goals are to create educational workshops tailored to parents’ needs, provide and foster a safe space where parents can learn, interact, and have their questions answered, educate them on different methods to communicate with their children, and host health and wellness events. For example, workshops that focus on asthma management, sleeping habits, car safety, and responding to allergic reactions.   Proposed intervention: To carry out this project, we chose to have 6 focused groups. The school principal will assist in randomly selecting a sample of 4 Latinx children from each grade cohort (in total 24 students) and one parent per student. We will be hosting events to have parents become CPR certified, raise mental health awareness, and promote healthy eating habits. Initially, these events will be implemented by Spanish-speaking facilitators.   Anticipated outcomes: We anticipate that through this project, parents will become empowered in becoming leaders at their child’s school, help to share and disperse their knowledge of what they have learned to their neighbors and other parents, continue to advocate for the wellbeing of their children, and strengthen parent and child relationship. We will assess our interventions via pre and post-surveys and feedback discussions. 

Project Goal

Collaborate with Emory faculty, residents, and other facilitators to increase parents’ and children’s knowledge regarding preventative conditions, nutritional status, and raise mental health awareness via different educational and supportive workshops.

Project Objective 1

SMART goal #1: Ensure that the focus groups are finalized by July 2025, which will consist of underprivileged and Spanish-speaking parents and children.

Project Objective 2

SMART goal #2: During fall of 2025, confirm the facilitators/speakers who are going to lead the workshops and assign their roles and responsibilities. Create a realistic checklist regarding topics that the participants can benefit from. 

Project Objective 3

SMART goal #3: In spring of 2026, ongoing discussions will be held between parents, school principal, Emory faculty, residents, and facilitators in order to evaluate the impact of the project and how we can improve them  for future planning.   

AAP District

District X

Institutional Name

Emory University 

Contact 1

Jaquelin Solis Solis, MD