Projects

GOAL: To provide opportunities and community support in maternal and child healthcare, empowerment, career development, and support for women, especially during the pregnancy and labor and delivery

Volunteer Needs: Team members for promotion, monitoring and evaluation

Upcoming Plans:

• Continue developing Atlanta Doula Connect a Volunteer Labor Support Program
• Partner with Georgia Tech App Development Team, the ObsTECHtrics for Atlanta Doula Connect App

Contact: Megna Reo

Overview

Circle of Safety is a cross-sector convening of more than 70 organizations and individuals working to prevent gun violence in Atlanta. We gather quarterly to connect, coordinate resources, and strengthen a robust community violence intervention (CVI) ecosystem. We are committed to building the political and community will for a comprehensive action plan that prioritizes a public health and community-based approach to preventing gun violence in Atlanta.

Circle of Safety was launched in 2023 by The IVYY Project at Grady to coordinate support for victims of gun violence as they move from the hospital into the community. Today, Circle of Safety is fiscally and operationally sponsored by the Urban Health Initiative at Emory University and guided by an Advisory Board that is forming to represent the membership. Jacquel Clemons Moore, MPH, chairs the Advisory Board.

Values

• Gun violence is a public health crisis that affects us all.
• We prioritize a public health approach to preventing gun violence; safety and wellbeing for people who have been injured; and re-investment in communities most impacted by gun violence.
• We believe in the power of community. Our communities are not the problem; they are the cure to the epidemic of gun violence we are experiencing.
• We intend to foster a sense of ownership and responsibility within the CVI ecosystem by encouraging collaboration and fellowship, among what is an already vibrant community of organizations addressing many different facets of violence interruption and prevention.
• No single solution will adequately address this collective problem. Through experience, we know that holistic, collaborative approaches work to prevent and stop the spread of gun violence.
• More people participating in solutions means safer communities.
• No one deserves violence.

Goals

• In 2024, Circle of Safety is focused on solidifying our structure and membership and expanding awareness among our members about Community Violence Intervention (CVI) and public health approaches to reducing gun violence.
• In 2025, Circle of Safety will build a consensus and a strategy to address gun violence as a collective. Specifically, we hope to create a Violence Reduction Strategic Plan for the metro Atlanta area through collaboration with ongoing violence prevention efforts as well as research, collection, and analysis of community violence data.

Contact

To join the Circle of Safety Mailing List, CLICK HERE

To join the Circle of Safety Google Group, CLICK HERE

For more information, please contact IVYY Director Jacquel Clemons Moore, MPH at jdclemons@gmh.edu.

GOAL:  To divert patients from using the Grady Emergency Department for dental-related concerns; To increase the number of Atlantans with a dental home by maximizing the presence of the HEALing Community Center’s highly skilled dental team in the community

Volunteer Needs: Hollis Innovation Academy Team Lead

Upcoming Plans:

• Outreach at Hollis Innovation, including content development for parents and teachers
• Train Grady Primary Care providers on conducting oral health screenings during primary care exams

Contact: Grace Buchloh

For detailed program information, click here.

Sprouting Readers©

• A garden-themed program for children primarily targeted toward children in K-2^nd grade.  Sprouting Readers© utilizes a multi-modal approach to fulfilling its mission to help children develop a love of learning, and knowledge about food and nutrition.  We have selected a number of age-appropriate books with a theme of gardening and related topics (weather, insects, etc.).  These books are read to the children (or we help them to read the books according to their ability).  In coordination with local school teachers, we have developed lessons that expand upon the topic of the selected book and incorporate STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) that the children are being taught in the public school system.  This is followed by a hands-on activity to further reinforce the learning from the book and the lesson.  Each child gets a copy of the selected book to take home and keep, and is encouraged to read the book to their parents/siblings. 

  For more information, contact Joan Wilson

Ag Careers Academy

• Under Development

GOAL: To engage students to graduate from high school through project-based learning with a focus on science and health care related issues by modeling a diverse range of health-related career pathways and empowering students to identify the most pressing health needs in their community and engage students in community-based health promotion activities.

Volunteers Needed: Students and Professionals in the following fields: Public Health, Medicine, Allied Health, and Physician Assistants.

Upcoming Plans:

• Develop virtual learning activities and tutoring sessions for our partner schools.
• Hold end of the year debriefs with volunteers and school leaders.

GOAL: To partner and provide evidence-based programs that help reduce Georgia’s morbidity and mortality rates, focused on community needs and creating meaningful change.

Upcoming Plans:

• Maternal Blood Pressure Pilot
• Reproductive education and health literacy support
• Postpartum mental health projects

GOAL: Maintain communication and coordinate across projects by scheduling/attending meetings, detect operational gaps and inconsistencies, propose operational improvements, develop tool to track programs progress and develop reports as needed.

Volunteers Needed: Marketing Assistant, Administrative Assistant (student or professional interested in gaining experience in management)

Upcoming Plans:

• Expand partnerships and sponsors
• Increase awareness of UHI and participate in outreach activities
• Recruit future volunteers
• Develop additional projects

Contact:  Taqiyya Alford

Emory’s Street Medicine program will provide health for those who are experiencing housing insecurity.   Housing insecurity is the lack of security in an individual shelter and may include homelessness. This often impacts Individuals with low incomes, a history of eviction, or with a criminal record may be forced to rent and/or occupy substandard housing with:

1. high housing costs relative to income (more than 50% of income);
2. poor housing quality such as vermin, mold, water leaks, lack of air-conditioning or heating;
3. unstable neighborhoods i.e. violence, criminal activity, prostitution;
4. and overcrowding in available housing due to costs.

Housing insecurity has shown to have impacts on health and the ability to continue health care coverage creating gaps in medical care.  Street Medicine is the first essential step in achieving higher levels of medical, mental health, and social care through coordinated, and collaborative care management.

Upcoming Plans:

1. Medical services for Housing Insecurity for Transitional/ Motel Housing
   1. Baseline health support
2. Rolling Suitcase Drive

GOAL: To provide Grady Hospital patients, employees, and Atlanta community members with information and advice about the dangers of smoking and vaping.

Volunteers Needed: Team members

Upcoming Plans:

• Collect and share information and strategies for tobacco use resistance.
• Promote success in quitting therapies via smoking cessation classes.
• Help evaluate success and needs for programs, ongoing.

Contact: Dr. Charles Moore

GOAL: Learn to advocate for issues of equity.

Volunteer Needs:

• Project Coordinator- Assist in the development of a Laney Graduate School course on Interprofessional Education and Social Determinates of Health course
• Project Coordinator- Assist with Ethics and Advocacy webinar, Primary Care Advocacy Collaborations, Civility Discussions

Contact: Joan Wilson, Dr. Bill Sexson