Student-led services to reduce health disparities due to access: A Case study of community-university efforts through the newly founded UC Merced

The recent establishment of the University of California, Merced (UCM) campus in 2005 is the first new American research university in the 21st century in California's underserved and impoverished Central Valley. A central aim of this new campus is to reduce disparities in education, economic development, and health. The founding student body believes strongly in fulfilling this vision through collaboration with the local community and region. California's Central Valley represents one of the most culturally diverse and agriculturally rich regions in the US. However, still the community suffers from severe health disparities due to language barriers, lack of health advocacy and severe shortages of healthcare professionals and access to healthcare. A cross-disciplinary group of undergraduate UCM students, determined to capitalize on the energy of the “founding” UCM class, has taken the responsibility to engage their university with their new community by establishing the In-Touch Community Health (ITCH) Initiative. ITCH is working to establish the ITCH Free Clinic, a student run community-based free clinic. Currently, ITCH has linked community leaders and university faculty to support its efforts, and oversee student-run community based projects designed to provide valuable hands-on experience to students, while offering much needed services for the community. This presentation will illustrate the evolution, current progress, and future work of ITCH with special attention to how undergraduate students can overcome challenges and leverage resources for community service. The discussion will show how student run organizations dedicated to the improvement of community health can impact health disparities through community-university partnerships.