Volunteer Opportunity Details:

Gouverneur Healthcare Services (part of NYC’s Health & Hospitals Corporation) has been providing quality healthcare in Manhattan’s Lower East Side for over 120 years. The population served is extremely wide and diverse: recent data demonstrates that Gouverneur patients are mainly Hispanic (47%) and Asian (36%), many of them foreign-born. Of the area population, 18% have received no formal schooling, and 23.7% have less than a 9th grade education. Gouverneur’s patient population exemplifies the type of population where access and health literacy are particularly problematic. Our mission is to meet the outpatient healthcare needs and improve the status of our culturally diverse community by providing primary, specialty, and behavioral healthcare services with compassion and professionalism.

Poor health literacy is generally problematic among persons who are elderly, low-income, undereducated, recent immigrants, or members of minority or ethnic groups facing language or cultural barriers. Because patients with low health literacy levels tend to have more hospitalizations, fewer primary care visits, and poor adherence to physician recommendations, Gouverneur has a longstanding program called the “Gouverneur Volunteerism and Health Literacy Program” which strives to:

 Improve patients’ understanding about how to safely take their medications
 Improve patients’ confidence and skill in five areas: managing multiple medications, using a medical journal, interpreting a drug label and asking providers questions about the medications they are taking
 Improve adult patients’ confidence and skill in understanding nutrition labels, portion control and healthy eating
 For parents of our pediatric patients age 0-3 yrs, to improve their knowledge about how to safely take care of their babies,
 For our obstetrics patients and recent mothers, to improve their knowledge of the benefits of breastfeeding, thereby increasing their desire to want to breastfeed their babies
 Partnering with the Gouverneur Weight Management Program to successfully recruit patients into weight management
 To improve the health behaviors and increase weight loss in patients who receive nutrition education from our volunteers and desire follow-up

Position Description:
Gouverneur is currently seeking a research fellow/student intern to serve as Program Coordinator for the Volunteerism and Health Literacy Program. You will gain valuable experience running a health education program. You will assist the Program Director in the implementation of the project’s goals and objectives by conducting the following tasks/responsibilities:

 Outreach to local schools and the community to recruit volunteers
 Conduct health literacy training sessions for volunteers (Summer 2010)
 Design and maintain the volunteer’s schedules at Gouverneur
 Serve as the day-to-day point person for the project
 Arrange all needed training sessions and meetings
 Report needed project improvements to the Program Director
 Create all necessary reports and documents, gather and analyze all necessary data for monitoring and evaluation purposes, and disseminating the program.
Compensation: This is a non-paid position. School credit is available. Future compensation may become available. Must be able to start immediately.

Minimum two semesters (Spring/Summer 2010) Preferably 1 year (Renewable) We expect this individual to commit to a schedule and work on a part-time basis (10-20 hours a week). He/she will dedicate 100% of his/her time to the health care volunteerism and literacy project.

Necessary Qualifications:

 Highly dependable (must be able to commit to a schedule, be on time and notify supervisor in case of a schedule change/conflict).
 Trainability to learn how to teach others (able to speak in front of a group)
 Some prior experience working with volunteers/students preferred
 Well-organized with an ability to work in both team and independent settings
 Flexibility with regard to schedule (able to occasionally respond to emails and/or phone calls after hours)
 Attention to detailed
 Must be currently enrolled as a student in a college or university (Graduate level preferred but will consider undergraduate) in an approved course of study (pre-med, social work, public health, nursing, health education, etc.) and not expected to graduate before Fall 2010
 Exposure to train-the-trainer programs a plus
 Bilingual (English/Spanish or English/Chinese) a plus

This opportunity is sponsored by: Gouverneur Healthcare Services We need volunteers who are free at these times Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Morning X X X X X Afternoon X X X X X Evening Monthly Contact Person: Che Kuang Yu, Director of Volunteer Services, (212) 238-7730, (email) View all organization contacts Address: 227 Madison Street New York, NY 10002 (See a map) Directions:   Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: F / East Broadway,   Walk distance (in minutes): 2   Nearest Bus Stop: M22 / Madison and Clinton, 1 minute walk Details where opportunity can also be performed This opportunity can also be performed in these locations: Web Site: None specified Miscellaneous Information Borough Manhattan Volunteer Shifts 9AM - 5PM. Monday through Friday.

5 Overall Experience   
Great

I volunteered in Dental department last summer. I was highly impressed on Mr. Yu who helped me to make a process. He made an every effort to meet my interests in volunteering. I am willing to continue volunteering this summer, too! posted by geshek on May 2, 2008