Children's Hospital Medical Center

Caroline Heyd, Summer 2018

This summer I worked with Dr. Andrew Beck at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, specifically at the Pediatric Primary Care Clinic (PPC). Saige and I worked together out of the division of General and Community Pediatrics. When we came on at the beginning of the summer, there were a number of smaller projects that were in progress or needed to be initiated. The largest project that we worked on was an Avondale Resource Map. We wanted to build a map of the resources in the community of Avondale, but we wanted to do so with a large amount of community input. Additionally, we helped to move some data projects forward. Specifically, we help transfer data for a Complex Care geocoding project.

Throughout this summer, we met weekly with a community group in Avondale called the Caring Families, Reading Bears and More. This group's focus is to promote parents reading with their young children. They also organize and host a number of events focused around providing free books to kids and encouraging reading. We spent several weeks getting to know the community and getting a sense of how the group worked. Then, we presented to the group for a meeting and gave an interactive version of our Avondale Resource Mapping Survey, asking about the resources they use most, the ones they like and don't like, and their biggest needs. We also asked them to make a drawing of their neighborhood and had them explain a little bit about what they drew. That was definitely the most interesting portion, we had drawings that focused on the construction, addicts and shoot-outs, and friendly neighbors. There was such a wide range of views of the same area of the city, it was very illuminating.

Another portion of our project was giving longer surveys in the PPC. The Civic Engagement Needs Assessment had several sections, including “Resources”, “Drawing of neighborhood”, “Taxes/Finances”, “Political Engagement” and “Demographics”. We approached families that were waiting in the waiting room of the PPC and asked them if they would be willing to answer some questions while they waited. Of the people we approached, most said yes, but of the surveys we passed out we only received around half of them back. Even fewer of those we received back, less than half actually chose to provide us with a drawing of their neighborhood, which showed a similar range of perceptions about their respective neighborhoods.