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Community Engagement Opportunities

HAVEN Free Clinic

The clinic’s mission is to serve as a sustainable free clinic that provides uninsured adults in New Haven with primary care, wellness education, and assistance in securing health care. Additionally, it aims to educate Yale health professional students about primary care and the value of working in health care teams; to allow students to gain experience in community health; and to expose students to the challenges of managing patient care with limited resources.

Neighborhood Health Project

The primary mission of the Neighborhood Health Project (NHP) is to improve access to health care and provide free screenings and education about hypertension and diabetes for underserved, low-income individuals in the New Haven community. NHP is located at The Episcopal Church of St. Paul and St. James, 57 Olive Street and is held Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.

Anatomy Teaching Program (ATP)

ATP is a science enrichment program in which YSM students teach basic anatomy to high school students from Hill Regional Career High School. Activities range from observation of dissected cadavers to examination of slides in histology laboratories to exploration of virtual anatomy iBooks.

Yale Center for Asylum Medicine

The Yale Center for Asylum Medicine conducts forensic medical interviews and evaluations for asylum-seekers referred to Yale by regional legal groups and community organizations.

Yale Refugee Health Program

The program’s mission is to provide a medical home for refugees arriving in the Greater New Haven area and promote clinical innovation, education and research in refugee health care.

New Haven PAWS Project

The New Haven PAWS Project (Poverty Alleviation through Washing Soles) seeks to provide footwear and podiatric care to those experiencing homelessness and extreme poverty in New Haven. The PAWS Project engages the greater Yale community in events centered around foot health, including foot washing services and shoe, sock, and hygiene kit giveaways.

Health Professions Recruitment Exposure Program (High School)

The Health Professions Recruitment Exposure Program (HPREP) is a nation-wide high school science enrichment program created to address poor health outcomes in disadvantaged communities by increasing minority representation in health professions. HPREP is a pipeline program under the auspices of the Student National Medical Association and Latino Medical Student Association at Yale. It is a program aimed at exposing students to all aspects of the health professions, including medicine, nursing, and public health

Program to Advance Training in Health & Sciences (PATHS)

The Program to Advance Training in Health & Sciences (PATHS) is a 10-month program that provides undergraduate students or recent graduates with a transformative learning experience to support their goal of applying for and earning an MD, MD/PhD, or PhD in the biomedical sciences. Students will be given access to critical online conversations, trainings, information, role models, mentors, tools, and resources specifically tailored to their future advanced degree track. Current students have mentoring roles.

REMEDY at Yale

Founded in 1991 by William H. Rosenblatt, Yale Professor of Anesthesiology, REMEDY at Yale is a group of health care professionals and others promoting the nationwide practice of recovery of exposed-but-unused surgical supplies. The end goal of our mission is to provide international medical relief while reducing solid medical waste from US hospitals.

Stamp Out Stroke

Stamp Out Stroke is a community service organization that aims to provide stroke education in New Haven and surrounding areas. We are dedicated to teaching our community how to recognize signs of stroke, reduce stroke risk factors, and receive prompt care. Our activities include giving educational lectures, fundraising, and enacting other community outreach efforts.

New Haven Voices

This initiative, launched in 2022, provides YSM students with the opportunity to listen to and engage with leaders in the New Haven community, to better understand the community in which they reside, which is necessary to meaningfully contribute to the community in their role as health professional students, as well as residents of the city.

Additional Community Engagement Opportunities

Yale Patient Navigator Program

We are a student collaboration between the Yale School of Medicine (MD and PA) and the Yale School of Nursing (YSN) committed to supporting patients in our community. Working with predominantly refugee patients from the Primary Care Center and St. Raphael’s Campus, we work to address social and economic barriers to healthcare and help patients with housing, food insecurity, transportation, and more. Paired with individuals and families, navigators develop longitudinal relationships with their patients, working alongside them to learn about agencies and organizations in the Greater New Haven area to ensure their success within the healthcare system and the community.

Yale Students for a National Health Program (SNaHP)

YSM Students for a National Health Program is the Yale chapter of the national SNaHP organization (the student arm of Physicians for a National Health Program). Our group provides a space for medical students to organize advocacy and discuss different policy solutions to the issue of healthcare access in the US (including but not limited to single-payer).

Physicians for Social Responsibility and Medical Students for Sustainable Future Combined Chapter (PSR/MSFSF)

The PS/MSFSF Yale School of Medicine Student Chapter aims to promote human health in Connecticut and the New Haven community by addressing pollution and climate change through education, service and advocacy.

Vot-ER

YSM students are active in this national nonpartisan, nonprofit effort to integrate civic engagement into health care. The students try to register more voters through the Yale medical community.