PROGRAM OVERVIEW CONNECT WITH US!

Email: contact@trianglehealthliteracy.org
Web: www.trianglehealthliteracy.org

TRIANGLE HEALTH
LITERACY INITIATIVE
A Duke Health-Durham Public Schools Collaboration
Program Overview

Prepared by: Proposal issued: Proposal updated:

Maya Talbott 02/16/2018 00/00/0000
Program Coordinator
FIRSTLY

THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST!

Since our founding in 2016, over 50 Duke Health professional

students and nearly 300 Durham middle school students have come
together through the Triangle Health Literacy Initiative (THLI) to
foster a healthier future for our community.

We look forward to sharing with you our vision and thank you for
your interest and support! The strength of THLI is deeply rooted in
interprofessional collaboration and community partnership, and we
hope you’ll consider joining us in pursuit of a healthy, empowered
and connected Triangle.

Maya Talbott
Program Coordinator
 PROGRAM OVERVIEW

CONTENT
ABOUT US 5

OBJECTIVES 6

BACKGROUND 7

OUR TEAM 9

ENGAGEMENT PLAN 10

OPERATIONS 11

FUTURE 11

CONNECT 12

Triangle Health Literacy Inititive Program Overview 3

WHAT IS

HEALTH LITERACY
“The degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and
understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate
health decisions.”

www.health.gov

4 www.trianglehealthliteracy.org
 ABOUT US

OUR VISION
HEALTHY, EMPOWERED, CONNECTED
OUR MISSION
• Strengthen the health literacy of Durham Public School students
• Empower Durham youth to act as community health literacy
ambassadors
• Enhance the communication skills of Duke Health
professional students

Interprofessional Connected
COLLABORATION COMMUNITY

Health professional students practicing community Connecting health services in the Triangle with its
advocacy and constructive teamwork. next generation of health literacy ambassadors.

Curriculum Longterm
DEVELOPMENT INVESTMENT

Lesson plans that grow with our program alongside An Engagement Plan that prioritizes an 18-month
the developing needs of our students. Sustainability Initiative.

Triangle Health Literacy Inititive Program Overview 5

 OUR OBJECTIVES

DURHAM FIRST
PUTTING

OUR GOALS GROW WITH OUR NEEDS

At the beginning of each year we reflect on our objectives based on feedback
from our Durham Public School students and staff, Duke Health volunteers and
faculty mentors, our Community Partners, and our Steering Committee.

EVALUATE OUR IMPACT EXPAND OUR REACH SUSTAIN OUR VISION

o Tailor evaluation methods to
suit community partner needs
o Apply established measures
of health literacy and program
efficacy
o Partner with Duke’s
HeyDurham to design Sexual
Health lesson
o Design optional Careers in
Health evening
o Integration into Duke Health
schools curricula
o Sustainability funding

6 www.trianglehealthliteracy.org
 HEALTH LITERACY IN DURHAM
Our Community

Only 12% of Americans are

found to have proficient
health literacy.
National Center for
Education Statistics

OUR HOME, OUR NEEDS

Durham’s legacy is rich with innovation in the fields of business, medicine, education and the arts.
With the dissolution of the tobacco and textile industries in Durham came community-lead initiatives
to position our home as a city of change agents, leading to the development of Durham’s identity as
the City of Medicine, known for innovation in the healthcare industry. Durham’s black community has
historically been a catalyst for progress, and for many years Durham’s prosperity depended on black-
owned businesses and the industry district dubbed “Black Wall Street.” Despite Durham’s wealth of
resources and creativity, significant racial, ethnic and socioeconomic disparities prevail.

In additions to shifts in industry, Durham’s demographics have also changed dramatically in recent
years. Since 2000, our population has grown over 25%. Non-Hispanic African Americans make up 39%
of the county population, whites make up 42%, Hispanics make up 13.5%, and Native American, Asian
and other ethnicities make up the remaining 5.5%. While the quality of care in Durham is high relative
to the rest of North Carolina, significant disparities in healthcare access and engagement persist. The
2014 Durham County Health Assessment supports “initiatives to improve health literacy” as a strategy
for addressing disparities in access to health care that persist in Durham today. In this assessment,
they suggest initiatives that “partner with schools…to provide in-person assistance,” and recommend
“[involving] community leaders in health education initiatives.”
www.healthydurham.org

Why is health literacy important?

THE SIGNIFICANCE THE FACTORS

Health literacy affects people’s ability to:
• Navigate the healthcare system, including filling out
complex forms and locating providers and services
• Share personal information, such as health history,
with providers
• Engage in self-care and chronic-disease management
• Understand mathematical concepts such as
probability and risk
www.health.gov
Health literacy is dependent on individual and
systemic factors:
• Communication skills of lay persons and professionals
• Lay and professional knowledge of health topics
• Culture
• Demands of the healthcare and public health systems
• Demands of the situation/context
www.health.gov
Triangle Health Literacy Inititive Program Overview 7
 OUR TEAM

“EVERY MEDICAL PROVIDER

IS A TEACHER. I’M SURE THAT
PARTICIPATING IN THLI MADE
ME A BETTER ONE.”
GUSTAV CAPPAERT, PA PROGRAM CLASS OF 2018

OUR PROGRAM IN NUMBERS

A Community of Health Literacy Ambassadors

300 50 2 3

DURHAM PUBLIC HEALTH EDUCATION SITE YEARS OF

SCHOOL STUDENTS PROFESSIONAL PARTNERS COLLABORATION
STUDENTS

8 www.trianglehealthliteracy.org
 OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM
Innovation through Collaboration

THLI was founded by Duke Health students,
and has historically been fully student-run.
This year we are excited to expand our reach
and pursue sustainability with the guidance
of our newly-formed Steering Committee.
Interprofessional collaboration has always been at
the heart of our success and development. This year
we welcome students from the Masters of Biomedical
Sciences program, as well as our mentors in the Family
Medicine and Pediatrics Residency programs! We look
forward to recruiting our first Student Advisory Board.

STEERING STUDENT 2018 TEACHING

COMMITTEE ADVISORY BOARD TEAM
Aronda Hill Student Name 8 PA Candidates
Director of Operations, Program Coordinator
Heatlhy Start Academy Student Name 7 MD Candidates
Diana McNeill Operations Lead/Treasurer
Director, Duke Ahead Student Name, Student Name 4 DPT Candidates
Anh Tran Community Partner Liasons
Education & Training Lead, __ ABSN Candidates
Student Name
Duke Center for Community Teaching Team Lead
and Population 5 MBS Candidates
Student Name
Health Improvement
Curriculum/Development
Anne Derouin __ Family Medicine Residents
Lead
Co-Chair, Adolescent Special
Interest Group, National __ Pediatrics Residents
Association of
Pediatric Nurse Practitioners
Kim Nichols
Director, Learning Together,
Duke Community & Family
Medicine

COMMUNITY PARTNERS
A Program Born of Partnership

The Health Literacy Initiative orginated from a partnership with Healthy Start Academy, North
Carolina’s first public charter school to open its doors to students. In 2017, we expanded our
community partnerhsips to include Student U, a college-access organization based in Durham
that works with students from accross Durham Public Schools.

Triangle Health Literacy Inititive Program Overview 9

 OUR ENGAGEMENT PLAN

WHERE WE’VE BEEN,

AND WHERE WE’RE GOING
PILOT MATURE
• Chancellor’s Service • Albert Schweitzer
Fellowship Fellowship
• Progrm pilot with • Evaluation of
interprofessional team Impact

2015 2017 2019

2016 2018
CONCEIVE GROW SUSTAIN
• HLI is founded • Partnership with • Sustainability
• Partnership with Student U initiative
Healthy Start Academy • Program development • Expand teaching
team and outreach

FOUNDATION: PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT

Since our founding, THLI has since expanded to include 7th and 8th grade students at two education
sites (Healthy Start Academy and Student U in Durham), while maintaining a 4:1 student to teacher ratio.
The now eight-part curriculum incorporates a wide-variety of topics such as nutrition, chronic illness,
mental health, substance abuse, hygeine, exercise, and emergency medicine. Sessions include didactic
learning, small group problem-solving, interactive activities, and reflection. The entire curriculum was
created in partnership with HLI volunteers and teachers at our partner sites. In addition, partnership with
the Duke Emergency Response Team and Duke Health has allowed for health-care excursions during the
course of the curriculum, allowing middle school students to learn CPR, experience the Duke Medical
Simulation Lab, and tour the Duke Nursing and Medical Schools.

Completion of the curriculum is celebrated with a Health Fair, hosted by the education sites and THLI
volunteers. The middle school students are the stars of the show, responsible for operating booths that
share health literacy concepts with their friends and family. The fair is a time to reinforce the curriculum,
but also a time for the middle school students to take on a leadership role within our community.
Additionally, students stand alongside various health organizations and resource groups invited from
the community to share materials.

EVALUATION OF IMPACT
During our pilot year, we sought to evaluate
our impact using pre- and post-lesson surveys.
Completion of these surveys proved difficult
with this age group however, resulting in
missing data. Last year, we introduced journal
reflections, a practice we hope to modify this
year to evaluate the longterm efficacy of our
program. After a query of the NIH-funded
10 www.trianglehealthliteracy.org
Health Literacy Tool Shed, we chose to use the
validated Health Literacy Assessment Scale for
Adolescents (HAS-A) to quantify the impact of
our program. We hope that combining open-
response feedback with validated assessment
will allow us to evaluate both the efficacy
of our program, as well as improvement in
health literacy measures.
 OPERATIONS
Budget and Future Planning

OUR BUDGET PROPOSAL

VOLUNTEER TRAINING & CURRICULUM & FIELD TRIP HEALTH LITERACY FAIR
CURRICULUM DESIGN SUPPLIES RESOURCES

Speaker Gifts $100.00 Curriculum Binders $300.00 Presentation boards $100.00

Training Booklets $70.00 Poster Boards $40.00 Table Clothes $50.00
Food for Seminars $400.00 Art Supplies $230.00 Passbooks & Stamps $30.00
Facilitation Binders $200.00 Participation Prizes $200.00 Raffle Supplies $200.00
Total $770.00 Supplemental Supplies $500.00 Healthy Snacks $500.00
Bus Transportation* $800.00 Total: $880.00
Packed Lunches* $300.00
Total $2370.00

GRAND TOTAL: $3500

OUR AWARDS
CHANCELLOR’S SERVICE ALBERT SCHWEITZER (FUTURE FUNDING AWARD)
FELLOWSHIP FELLOWSHIP??

2016 Fellowship Recipient 2018 Fellowship Recipient?? (Funding Organization

Duke Health NC Chapter Name)

SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE
The relationship between Duke Health and
Durham is complex, and despite progress in
recent years, distrust is unfortunately a part
of the history of this relationship. Lack of
sustainability of well-intentioned community
programs facilitated by Duke Health affiliates
has contributed to this distrust. We are
currently pursuing the following avenues to
Triangle Health Literacy Inititive Program Overview
address sustainability for THLI: 1) Meeting with
Duke Health faculty in order to integrate THLI
into our established curricula, 2) Establishing
workflow with the Program Coordinators at
our partner education sites, and 3) Advoate
for our program’s merit for long-term funding
from both internal sources as well as outside
grants.
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 EMPOWERING
A HEALTHY
DURHAM

GET INVOLVED!

Email:
contact@trianglehealthliteracy.org
Web:
www.trianglehealthliteracy.org
Phone:
(650) 815-1667

Thank you for your interest and

support! We are looking for
collaborators from all fields and levels today to see how you can contribute
of experience to join our team and to a healthy, empowered and
share our vision. Reach out to us connected Triangle!

Triangle Health Literacy Inititive Program Overview 12