Pitt’s commitment to its broader communities is “boots on the ground” with the Homewood and Hill District community engagement centers (CECs). The School of Social Work is directly involved because it provides Master of Social Work (MSW) interns for programs in both neighborhoods. Daren Ellerbee, director of the Homewood CEC (Community Engagement Center), was delighted to be able to handpick her interns for fall 2020 and says she chose Chandler Dangerfield and Mikhaila Fogel not only for their academic qualifications and relevant experience, but also because they both “resonated with the vibe and energy of the CEC.”
What is the vibe and energy of the CEC? According to Daren Ellerbee: “It is a warm, welcoming place, rooted in the community” that recognizes, celebrates, and leverages the strengths and assets of the community, who have shown resilience, fortitude, and creativity in surviving decades of economic adversity and systemic racism. The CEC is located within the neighborhood of Homewood specifically to engage with the existing community organizations and people that live there. It was designed to build bridges between Pitt and residents of Homewood, to be a mutually enriching space that invites collaboration and cooperation.
Leveraging her background in marketing, Chandler created a virtual tour of the center, and she noted that the large lobby windows “symbolize the transparency of the community-University partnership, as well as to make the space light, bright and welcoming. The lobby is also used as a gallery, displaying art from local artists – it includes a work by one local artist, George Hogan, a member of the Harambee Ujima Black Arts Festival, established in Homewood over 50 years ago.”
Another key project for Chandler was rebranding the infant oral health study in collaboration with lead investigator Dr. Jacqueline Burgette. The project was created after the community expressed interest in the topic. Despite offering porch drop off toothbrushes, toothpaste and other incentives, the study suffered from low recruitment.
Chandler suggested changing the name to “Healthy Teeth, Healthy Me” and including more support to the participants during and post-study. Outreach meetings with the program director and the community outreach manager helped to spread the word and build trust, as well as a “contactless dinner” event and virtual information sessions, all of which resulted in a 75% increase in interest in the study. During this internship, Chandler realized that her marketing skills are a complement her social work skills; she can “leverage the power of marketing to engage the community in public health and education, rather than simply sell them a product.”
Mikhaila’s projects included working on two vital Covid-19 Relief projects that were set up in response to the pandemic; the Farmers to Families food drive, and the vaccine distribution and hotline. Over 400 food boxes containing 10 meals that included fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy were distributed within an hour, which Mikhaila noted “demonstrated that the need for healthy food in Homewood was worsened by the pandemic, and the work of the Homewood CEC is instrumental in meeting those needs.”
Another project for Mikhaila was the Covid-19 vaccination hotline. It is well-established that communities of color have historically suffered from lack of medical resources compared to White communities, and the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in typical disparities, with some of the most vulnerable older Black adults having the least access to the vaccine. In February, the Allegheny County Health Department had 2,000 extra doses of the Moderna vaccine which they allocated for the older Black population located in Homewood and the Hill District.
Each community was responsible for registering 1,000 people for vaccination in four days. Various community organizations stepped up to assist in the effort, and the hotline was created to centralize communications. While this effort was successful and 2,000 people received their first dose of vaccine, the second doses were not available on the promised schedule in Homewood. Working the hotline, Mikhaila fielded calls from justifiably angry and disappointed residents, who sometimes shared with her that this was a “typical” breach of trust, just another example of decades of discrimination and worse in the health care system.
Despite Mikhaila’s reassurances to the residents that the second dose would be forthcoming within the recommended 42-day window, she felt upset when it was clear that “residents simply did not believe me.” Because of coursework that had prepared her with the facts of history and public health, she refused to take it personally, and reminded herself that decades of institutional racism in healthcare cannot be undone overnight – as she said: “trust needs to be earned, and right there, right then, it was my job to start building that trust by careful listening and with an open and honest response and follow-up.” Fortunately, the second doses did become available quite shortly after this experience, so it was gratifying to have been part of a successful project to protect vulnerable Black adults from Covid-19. Of her internship experience, Mikhaila said; “I realized that I would like to focus my career in social work on community health care.”
Daren Ellerbee describes Chandler and Mikhaila as “simply the best” and she is building on four years of experience at the CEC and with social work interns. She knows that Pitt’s school of social work equips its students with the education, history, background, and experience to rise to challenges and make meaningful contributions on both a personal level to residents of Homewood, and on a program level to Pitt’s overarching mission in their Community Engagement Centers.