Project Health

For low-income youth and families, traditional medical care is not sufficient to improve health outcomes. A prescription for antibiotics is not enough when there is no food at home. Poor health further entrenches families in poverty by jeopardizing educational attainment, economic stability, and life opportunities. Founded in the Boston Medical Center Pediatrics Department in 1996, Project HEALTH's approach is simple but effective: We enable doctors to "prescribe" food, fuel assistance, housing, or other resources for their patients, just as they do medication. Patients take these prescriptions to our Family Help Desks in clinic waiting rooms, where our college volunteers "fill" them by connecting patients with these critical resources. Last year, Project HEALTH trained and mobilized nearly 600 college volunteers serving over 4,000 low-income patients and their families in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, New York, Providence, and Washington, D.C. Our impact is two-fold: Our Family Help Desks expand the capacity of clinics to connect their patients with the resources they need to be healthy. At the same time, by providing a transformative experience for our volunteer corps, we are producing a pipeline of new leaders with the skills, knowledge, and experience to bring about change in the health care system.