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Date: March 31, 2010
Contact: Jennifer Forbes
Communication/Public Affairs
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
732-235-6356 or jenn.forbes@umdnj.edu
Homeless and Indigent Population Health Outreach Project Presents the
H.I.P.H.O.P. 11th Annual 5K Fun Run/Walk
New Brunswick, N.J. – The Homeless and Indigent Population Health Outreach Project, or HIPHOP, at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School invites the community to participate in its annual 5K Fun Run/Walk on Saturday, April 10, 2010. The annual event is a fundraiser to benefit the St. John’s Family Health Center and the Promise Clinic in New Brunswick, and community outreach sites that are committed to care for the health needs of the underserved.
The 5K Fun/Run Walk will be held in Johnson Park on River Road in Piscataway. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. at the starting point east of Landing Lane Bridge across from the Animal Haven. The race will begin at 10 a.m. Entry fees are $15 per participant or $12 for students. The entry fee for teams that include seven or more participants is $10 per person.
Community members interested in participating can find more information and register at: rwjms.umdnj.edu/hiphop or call 732-235-4198.
HIPHOP is a student-run community service organization on the New Brunswick/ Piscataway campus of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Through involvement in HIPHOP, medical students, physician assistant students, and public health students enhance their health education and communication skills, learn about the social and medical needs of underserved populations in the Greater New Brunswick area and gain valuable community-oriented primary care experience.
HIPHOP programs that students participate in range from shadowing physicians at St John's Clinic to teaching high school students about HIV prevention to attending chemotherapy treatments with cancer patients; the common link for all programs is that they allow the students to reach out to the community. The programs offered through HIPHOP, both within the required curriculum and outside of the required curriculum, allow students to engage in a unique service learning opportunity where the surrounding community becomes the classroom.
The students in HIPHOP participate in more than 30 outreach projects in Central New Jersey that include health fairs, a back-to-school supply drive, an annual volunteer day and annual youth science education day, as well as the 5K run/walk fundraiser.
The run/walk is sponsored in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Alumni Association.
About The Homeless and Indigent Population Health Outreach Project at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School:
Founded in 1992 with the vision of two medical students who recognized the need for a program that would allow their peers to make a difference in the community, HIPHOP has evolved into an umbrella program with three major initiatives: the Community Health Initiative, which promotes healthy living practices, provides preventive health education including diabetes and blood pressure screenings, and supports/advocates for underserved and indigent populations; the Promise Clinic: which in partnership with Elijah's Promise Soup Kitchen, provides access to primary care for an underserved, mostly homeless population; and the Motivating Ourselves Via Exercise and Nutrition (MOVEN) Project where medical students work with mothers and children to promote healthier eating habits and exercise.
About UMDNJ-ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON MEDICAL SCHOOL
As one of the nation’s leading comprehensive medical schools, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in education, research, health care delivery, and the promotion of community health. In cooperation with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, the medical school’s principal affiliate, they comprise New Jersey’s premier academic medical center. In addition, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School has 34 other hospital affiliates and ambulatory care sites throughout the region.
As one of the eight schools of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey with 2,800 full-time and volunteer faculty, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School encompasses 22 basic science and clinical departments, hosts centers and institutes including The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the Child Health Institute of New Jersey, the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, and the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey. The medical school maintains educational programs at the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels for more than 1,500 students on its campuses in New Brunswick, Piscataway, and Camden, and provides continuing education courses for health care professionals and community education programs. To learn more about UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, log on to rwjms.umdnj.edu. Find our fan page on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @UMDNJ_RWJMS.
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