Connected 4 health: Developing an interdisciplinary network of leaders who work at the intersection of health and education

Healthy students make better learners. Better learners grow into healthier adults, who raise healthier children, ready to learn. Unfortunately, the disparities in health and education mirror each other. This gap puts the nation's poorest children most at risk for untreated health problems and lacking critical reading and writing skills necessary for ensuring functional health literacy. Despite this link, education and health professionals often work in isolation of each other, not aware of the others' goals, methods, and complementary skill sets. Universities are uniquely poised to bring together such interdisciplinary community collaborations. ConnectEd 4 Health was created to bring graduate students and professionals in public health, medicine, and nursing together with Teach For America corps members and alumni. (Teach For America is the national teacher corps that works in high-poverty, under-resourced public schools.) By bringing together these individuals, the mission of ConnectEd 4 Health is to support healthy schools and communities by developing an interdisciplinary network of leaders who work at the intersection of health and education. This presentation describes the design, evaluation, and impact of ConnectEd 4 Health components: 1) Health Leadership Track: professional development for teachers on student health and health-related career options; 2) Classroom to Community: a community-university partnership course designed to provide hands-on health education training; 3) Community Engagement: health-related opportunities to bring teachers and graduate students together in the community. The ultimate goal of this presentation is to share the framework for ConnectEd 4 Health in order to develop similar partnerships between universities, schools, and communities.