The School of Public Health-Bloomington is continuing its
focus on promoting wellness not just within the university, but throughout the
community as well. The School was rewarded a three year AmeriCorps grant from
Serve Indiana, which will be used to promote a program called Healthy Schools
Corps in ten counties in Indiana. Studies of Indiana school districts reveal
that the main problems in having well-organized health programs were an absence
of central leadership and coordination, an inability to recruit outside
volunteers, and a lack of structured management of volunteers. The Healthy
Schools Corps will provide a solution to these problems. Members of AmeriCorps
will assist the school districts with recruiting and managing volunteers and
coordinating health programs.This program will be implemented with help from Lisa Petscher, the manager of coordinated school health for IU Health Bloomington. Alongside the School of Public Health and other community partners, Petscher will work with the Monroe County Community School Corp. to promote this and other coordinated health programs to numerous school districts. Said Petscher, “Partnerships like this are essential. It takes a village, and everyone needs to play a role in the health of future generations.” The School of Public Health is certainly playing an important role to ensure the well being of present and future generations.
