National Health Corps Pittsburgh Blog

"In my role as an Outreach Coordinator at Women for a Healthy Environment, I get to facilitate workshops related to lead, asthma, air quality, and the use of personal care and cleaning products, all of which are topics that aren’t the first ones that come to mind when thinking about environmental health. However, these topics are ones that have a bigger effect on us on at an individual level then recycling."

"For some, the true nature of public health may be a bit ambiguous. The truth is, public health is big, it’s broad, it's everywhere. Public health is the murals you see while driving, public health is breastfeeding in a private room at your workplace, public health is the smoke free-oxygen you breathe in restaurants, public health is your child playing at recess. Even when you may not be aware of it, public health is all around you. As individuals, we all play a role in creating and contributing to the public health around us. However, in order to ensure that all members of our community have the ability and resources to be viable contributors to our overall public health, a momentous amount of work needs to take place behind the scenes."

"In National Health Corps, our supervisors are also mentors. Their role is to serve as our adviser; encouraging growth, modeling professionalism, and encouraging a commitment to service and the community. The mentor-mentee relationship is strongly supported through consistent trainings, resources and check-ins. This is unique to National Health Corps and something that drew me to the program. What I didn’t expect, are the mentors I have found in the volunteers at my host site."

"There are many barriers that prevent one from acquiring and using safe sex methods in order to prevent exposure to STDs. Acknowledging these barriers and addressing them appropriately, as I have continued to do in my position at the Allegheny County Health Department, is the best way to help prevent STDs as well as many other health disparities."