Application of Knowledge

Jeff, Harrison, and Olivia

"Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education." - Martin Luther King Jr.

House of Ruth

"House of Ruth provides housing and support services for people with HIV/AIDS and their families who are homeless, at risk of losing their homes, or need financial help."

During our stay in Louisville our Hawkeye Service Team was able to help this local organization in a variety of ways.
A few of the team members helped to sort and stock essential donated items including toiletries, clothing, and adult personal care items. Public health issues such as HIV/AIDS impact all areas of life. Our students were able to lend a helping hand in making it easier for impacted community members to find the products they needed. The community members that House of Ruth serves may be facing a number of health related issues and these items help with their day-to-day self care needs.
Other students helped to sort and pack food into to-go meal packages for the clients of the organization to take home with them. When it comes to issues regarding public health, having access to nutritious food is a necessity. Students working on sorting food kept this in while also considering major dietary needs, such as carbohydrates and proteins, when packing meals.
Every group member was able to work outside to help rake leaves and mulch around the church where House of Ruth resides. While most team members had never mulched before, they were able to learn from others and quickly tackle the task at hand.

The Lord's Kitchen Ministries

The Lord's Kitchen Ministries was a wonderful opportunity for students to use their interpersonal communication skills and work directly with community members.
Students were able to help community members get fresh fruits, vegetables, breads, meats, and packaged grain items to take with them.
These food products were given to community members to have during the rest of the day when the ministry would no longer be serving meals.
Pastor and community leader Vance was able to help team our team what it means to be an active citizen in the community and served as an inspiration to all.

Our Place

Our Place is a wonderful non-profit whose purpose is to educate youth and families about the harm of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs while also making an effort to prevent and intervene for individuals that are in or at risk of being in harmful situations.

Our Contribution

The very first day of volunteering we went to Our Place to assist them in a variety of tasks, which mostly consisted of cleaning and general building upkeep. The work we did at Our Place was vital due to their inability to employ a janitorial staff since they lost their funding last year. In addition to the general cleaning and upkeep a few students helped with some much needed filing and digitizing of old documents.
Our second day at Our Place we split into smaller groups and went out into the community. We spent the morning surveying local gas stations, convenient stores, and liquor stores to log how tobacco items are advertised and at what prices they are sold.

Our Impact

Due to Our Place's lack of a custodian, caused by recent cuts in funding, their office was in need of some cleaning up. Through our efforts of cleaning we saved the regular staff at Our Place hours of time that can now be spent serving the community directly.
Our morning spent surveying in the community was vital work towards the goal of enacting new legislation. We got to see first hand how aggressive certain stores and brands advertise their products.The data that we collected on how tobacco companies are specifically targeting youth and low income areas could one day lead to legislation that can make a huge impact on how tobacco is sold and displayed, which could lead towards a drastic improvement on our societies health.

Take Aways

Our time spent in Louisville revealed that that public health issues in the United States are broad and complex. There are many facets to understanding public health, including the underlying systems that perpetuate poverty, lifestyle choices, situational issues, and more. Each of the locations we volunteered at addressed a major health issue that affected the community. The House of Ruth served people suffering from HIV/AIDS, Our Place worked with people suffering from various forms of addiction, and The Lord's Kitchen strives to fill in gaps left by the food system.

Despite the fact that there are these deficiencies in Louisville, the fact that the organizations we volunteered at exist is an asset. There was an incident in which we sent to another location because there were already enough people helping out, which is definitely an asset because it shows that the community has support within itself.

While our work certainly was not for naught, the issues affecting the community will persist into the foreseeable future. Our team has since returned to Iowa City, but the issues revolving around HIV/AIDS, addiction, and food insecurity have not gone away. There are many public health crises in the United States, and even though they were readily apparent in the Louisville area, there is much that we as community members in Iowa City can do to improve the lives of our fellow students and Iowa Citians.

There are clearly health needs in our community that must be addressed. Within the student population, there are issues of alcohol consumption and early-onset alcoholism, drug abuse, food insecurity, and STDs. These issues also exist in the Iowa City community. Within the state of Iowa, the opioid crisis is severe, as was discussed in our interactions with Our Place.

Below is a list of actions our group can take:

Continue to invest time and energy into community efforts that address public health, such as working with Table to Table or Habitat for Humanity.
Engage with our own social networks to encourage their participation in community efforts and interaction with community assets.
Remain an active citizen by advocating for action on public health issues at city council meetings, town halls, and with our representatives and senators at both the state and federal level
Participate in elections and favor candidates willing to address public health issues.
Donate money and resources to organizations in our community that address public health issues. Many organizations, such as Transformative Healing, are facing funding cuts so financial support is critical.

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