Jennifer Forbes
Communications & Public Affairs
732-235-6356, jenn.forbes@rwjms.rutgers.edu
Piscataway, N.J. – All members of the community are welcome to participate in a 5K run/walk in support of programs that promote community service and health education in central New Jersey. Hosted by the Homeless and Indigent Population Health Outreach Project, or HIPHOP, at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, the 16th annual 5K Fun Run/Walk will be held on Saturday, March 14, 2015, at Johnson Park in Piscataway. Proceeds from the run/walk benefit the HIPHOP Promise Clinic, which provides free medical services to the uninsured residents of New Brunswick, in addition to supporting HIPHOP’s community health education programs and events.
The 5K Fun/Run Walk is a flat, fast course that starts and finishes near the Animal Haven, following paved roadways near the Raritan River. On-site registration begins at 8:30 a.m.; the race will begin at 10 a.m. On or before March 2, the entry fee is $14 per participant or $12 per person on a team of five or more. The entry fee is $15 thereafter. The first 200 runners or walkers will receive a t-shirt. For more information and to register visit: http://rwjms3.rwjms.rutgers.edu/hiphop/5KRun.html
Last year’s event included more than 200 participants and raised approximately $8,000.
“Through involvement in HIPHOP, health professions students enhance their education and communication skills, and learn about the social and medical needs of underserved populations in the greater New Brunswick area,” said Susan Giordano, staff program coordinator of HIPHOP at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. “The students gain valuable community-oriented primary care experience while learning patient-centered medicine.”
For more than twenty years, HIPHOP, a comprehensive, student-run health delivery organization, has provided primary care and patient education to underserved children and adults who have limited access to health care and health education. The students in HIPHOP, who include medical students, physician assistant students and public health students, participate in more than 30 outreach projects in central New Jersey that focus on health maintenance and disease prevention.
The Promise Clinic, a student-run health clinic for guests of Elijah’s Promise Soup Kitchen in New Brunswick, is a principal program of HIPHOP and primary beneficiary of the 5K Run/Walk. It offers primary care, lab and pharmacy services to more than 80 patients, up from 15 when it was founded in 2005. Each patient is paired with a team of four student doctors, one from each year of medical school, who are supervised by a licensed faculty physician. The team cares for their patient throughout their years of training at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School to ensure continuity of care.
Additional supported HIPHOP programs range from shadowing physicians at the school’s Eric B. Chandler Health Center, to teaching high school students about HIV prevention, to attending chemotherapy treatments with cancer patients. The students also attend local health fairs to provide basic health screenings and teach educational workshops on preventive medicine at Ozanam Family Shelter, the New Hope Foundation-Open Doors, and local middle and high schools. All programs are overseen by medical school faculty and health professionals who volunteer their time to train and assist the students.
The HIPHOP 5K Run/Walk receives support from Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, faculty and staff of the medical school, as well as other local companies and organizations.
About HIPHOP:
HIPHOP-Community Health Initiative is a program established in 1994 by Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School students as a student-directed community service and learning program. Through this program, students provide community outreach and preventive health education to the underserved populations in the Greater New Brunswick area. The program links health-specific learning objectives for the students with community efforts to provide for the health and social needs of underserved, uninsured and underinsured members of the community. HIPHOP-Promise Clinic is a community of medical students, volunteer physicians, and community partners dedicated to providing patient-centered, quality primary care services to the clients of Elijah's Promise Soup Kitchen and the uninsured residents of New Brunswick. Promise Clinic also serves as an environment where medical students and other health professionals can engage with the Greater New Brunswick community through service-learning aimed at teaching the importance of continuity of care, teamwork, advocacy, innovation, and leadership. The medical school funds the HIPHOP program with assistance from the Rutgers Community Health Foundation and individual donors.
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