A program in the College of Health Professions and Sciences that engages students in providing preventative health services to the community to address chronic disease has been awarded $50,000 from the Winter Park Health Foundation (WPHF) as part of their Well Together Grant Awards Challenge.
Through the Community Health Ambassadors Program, faculty clinicians and students will conduct health screenings, deliver educational workshops on topics like healthy eating, nutrition, exercise and wellbeing, and provide wellness coaching to families in Winter Park and Eatonville. The initiative centers around addressing health risk factors that contribute to heart disease and diabetes/prediabetes and providing effective intervention programs.
The grant funding will help purchase critical supplies, including portable clinical equipment.
“We are grateful to the Winter Park Health Foundation for this incredible gift and the chance to work together to build stronger and healthier communities,” says Suha Saleh, an assistant dean in the College of Health Professions and Sciences who has conducted extensive research on diabetes and public health and oversees the UCF program. “When it comes to chronic diseases, there are so many ways we can both prevent onset and mitigate progression, and our goal is to provide those lifesaving tools to those who are most at risk.
“Through our Well Together Grant Awards Challenge, the Winter Park Health Foundation sought innovative project proposals that would have lasting effects on the health of the residents of Eatonville, Maitland, and Winter Park. With its creative Healthy Living Initiative, the UCF Foundation will empower participants with the education and expertise needed to adopt sustainable health habits,” said Patricia Maddox, Winter Park Health Foundation President and CEO. “Uniquely, the Healthy Living Initiatives focuses on two of the Challenge’s three key issues – diabetes/prediabetes and heart health — and does so while offering the opportunity to train and energize the next generation of healthcare providers. We are proud to have included the UCF Foundation in our group of five finalist organizations and look forward to this collaboration.”
The Community Health Ambassadors Program, which began at UCF in 2021, is now being delivered in partnership with Orange County’s Neighborhood Center for Families locations, which are one-stop centers made up of non-profit, government, and community groups that provide residents with a variety of education, health and employment services.
“The students participating in this program are planning careers in healthcare and this experience not only provides them with a unique, hands-on learning opportunity, it also enables them to get a firsthand perspective of public health needs and demonstrates how critical health education and access is for our communities,” Saleh says. “This experience will ultimately inspire, influence and shape the next generation of healthcare providers.”
UCF is one of five local non-profits who were named finalists in the WPHF’s Well Together Grant Awards Challenge, which is designed to tackle critical health issues in Central Florida and is a special project in commemoration of the group’s 30th anniversary.
The finalists will next participate in a series of storytelling training sessions and compete for an additional $50,000 award.
Since 1994, the WPHF has focused on improving health in the communities of Eatonville, Maitland, and Winter Park. Through ongoing data collection and monitoring trends, WPHF identifies health issues and needs. WPHF’s strategy is to engage partners and empower residents to support healthy behaviors; address barriers to health; create healthy habits where people live, learn, work, and play; and make health a priority.
