In the summer of 2001, I participated in a service-learning project called, “Rethinking Urban Poverty: A Philadelphia Field Project”. This academic research initiative was designed to study urban poverty in a nontraditional manner using post-structural theory. The Mantua neighborhood in West Philadelphia was used as a case study for the innovative field research. I lived with six other undergraduate students in a traditional West Philadelphia row house sponsored by the Friends Work Camp. Each student examined a specific aspect of urban poverty and wrote her honors thesis based on personal interviews, literature searches, and participatory community research. Complex issues such as education, recreation, public safety, urban gardening, and health care were addressed. My thesis specifically focuses on community-based organizations as a means to improve urban health care. The service-learning project strives to advance the understanding of urban life by engaging students in action research. By living and working in the community, we were able to learn about the richness of urban neighborhoods an become a resource for the community. We were challenged to think beyond traditional ideology to find practical solutions that will produce effective and sustainable results for the community we were living in. Hopefully, or increased understanding of communities will enhance academic discourse on poverty and ultimately lead to improved urban life.

My role in this process was to examine the current status of health care delivery and determine better ways to utilize existing and future health programs through community-based efforts. My volunteer experiences at the Health Corner, the Health Annex at Francis J. Myers Recreation Center, One Day at a Time, and the Sarah Allen Home allowed me to look at health initiative from several community perspectives. By examining the source, medium, and the receivers of different health care campaigns, I was able to analyze if these programs were in align with the desired community health promotion. By interacting with local leaders, health care professionals and residents, I was able to see the inner workings of community-based organizations and the strategies they used to disseminate health information. Furthermore, I listened to the concerns of community members and utilized my knowledge of the Philadelphia health care system to find the best ways to improve access and provide support for the diverse health care models. By restructuring existing community resources and developing new initiatives for improving the quality of care, I hope to enhance the progress of community-based groups. I understand that no one center is able to target the needs of the entire community. Therefore, I am focusing on the building of partnership among community members and interdisciplinary groups. I hope to provide residents with a variety of health care options and inform service providers of novel initiatives to strengthen existing neighborhood efforts. Working within a community context offered me the best way to understand the complex dynamics of health and develop effective strategies for improving it. By combining post-structural theory, literature reviews, statistical data, and first-hand accounts, my thesis will explain why broad-based changes provided by community-based organizations are necessary to improve community health and to increase access to health services.