To:

Upcoming Sophmore and Junior Students (Bilingual: English/Spanish)

From: Linda van Schaick, Director, The H.E.L.P. Project (Health Education and Literacy for Parents) Date: April 11, 2012 Re: Training for Summer and Fall Volunteer Positions will begin end of May/June 2012 _________________________________________________________________________

We are looking for committed bilingual volunteers to work with parents at Bellevues pediatric clinic.

HELP Volunteer teaching a new mother how to dose liquid medicine

Previous Prehealth volunteers have found their HELP experience an asset during Medical School Interviews
Bellevue Hospitals Pediatric Clinic is looking for bilingual English-Spanish student volunteers to work with us in a special Health Education and Literacy for Parents (H.E.L.P.) Project. Medical information can be overwhelming to anybody, but may be especially daunting for first time parents, new immigrants or those with low literacy levels. Staff and trained volunteers, often from the same culture and language background as parents, use waiting room time as an opportunity to talk about issues related to childrens health. Using bilingual, plain language handouts and real life materials like prescription labels and dosing instruments, staff and volunteers help parents gain the skills they need to understand how to best care for their children.

The Goals of the project are to: Improve parents ability to read and understand healthcare instructions. i.e. medication labels Instruct parents to use written materials to focus on their childrens overall health Help parents to better communicate with Pediatricians Motivate parents to continue their own education Students will need to come for an interview and will be notified within one week if they will be accepted into the program. Students interested in volunteering will need to commit: To train after the current semester ends A minimum of two semesters, two 2 hour sessions per week commitment to the program. Sessions are Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. daily. Volunteers will be required to receive medical clearance before acceptance into the program.

To learn more about The HELP Project please go to our website to see a short Video about the program:
http://helpix.med.nyu.edu/the-help-project/video Thank you for your interest. I am looking forward to hearing from you as soon as possible. Fill out our volunteer application (below) and e-mail it to Linda.vanSchaick@nyumc.org or call 212 562-3165

VOLUNTEER APPLICATIONTHE H.E.L.P. PROJECT

NAME: STREET: CITY, STATE, ZIP CODE: EMAIL ADDRESS: PHONE: (Home) EMERGENCY CONTACT EMERGENCY CONTACT (Work) (Name): (Phone): 2 3 4 COLLEGE - 1 2 3 4 (Cell) Date:

EDUCATION: HIGH SCHOOL - 1 DEGREE: YEAR:

OTHER EDUCATION: CURRENT SCHOOL OR PLACE OF WORK: LANGUAGES OTHER THAN ENGLISH: SPEAK: READ: Level of competency________________ Level of competency______

WORK EXPERIENCE (or attach resume: please include any experience working with adults): VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE (where, when, what kind of work): DAYS ABLE TO VOLUNTEER TIMES ABLE TO VOLUNTEER: MONTHS ABLE TO COMMIT TO VOLUNTEER WORK WHY DO YOU WANT TO VOLUNTEER WORKING WITH PARENTS IN OUR HEALTH LITERACY PROJECT? (Please feel free to attach a resume or other information that will help us to know you better) Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri