Q1: If your team were given $25,000 and one year to further your efforts toward solving a community problem, how would you proceed? What do you think are the "next steps" to take?
Our solution for preventing cold and flu epidemics in school has four parts:
A. The design, making, and wearing of Designer Health Masks by students during cold and flu seasons to reduce the spread of germs from student to student.
B. The professional production of a School Epidemic Control Training Video. Since cold and flu epidemics affect all schools, the video will be a high quality production suitable for use by schools around the world.
The video will first be distributed to all classrooms in our district and shown twice each school year; once at the beginning of the school year and again around November when cold and flu seasons begin. Eventually, we hope to send the video to any school who wants it.
Video content will include 1) ways students can protect themselves and their friends from catching colds and the flu, 2) instructions on how students can make their very own Designer Health Mask, and 3) directions on how students can use their Designer Health Masks.
C. The publication and distribution of a Student Handbook which will contain numerous way that students can protect themselves and their friends from getting a cold or the flu.
D. The authoring and posting, to the Internet, of a School Epidemic Control Center web site. It will contain school epidemic alerts, links to student and teacher health training resources, a booklist of related web sites, online discussion groups, e-mail list for school networking, and a database for school epidemic control research. Schools around the world can have access to our program and the resources we are developing.
We will use the $25,000 community grant to purchase the surgical masks which students will use to make their Designer Health Masks, professionally produce the training video, publish the student handbook, and author the School Epidemic Control Center web site.
Q2: What would a basic one year timeline look like for completing the "next steps" you've identified above?
1998-1999
June Team planning session.
Write script and hire video production company to produce
training video.
Write and edit student handbook.
July - August Production company completes training video.
St. Tammany Graphic Arts Department publishes student
handbook.
Author, post, and maintain School Epidemic Control Center web
site on the Internet throughout school year.
September Distribute Video and Handbook to all classrooms in
district for the beginning of 1998-1999 school year.
Show training video to and review student handbook with all
students at beginning of 1998-1999 school year.
Pilot Use of Designer Health Mask at Mandeville Middle School only:
Baseline Student Absences '97-'98 Training Film Shown in All MMS Classrooms Distribute Student Handout to MMS Students Begin Practicing "Ten Ways......" Students Design and Produce Their Masks Wear Designer Health Masks During Cold and Flu Season Measure Student Absences '98-'99
November Repeat showing of training video and reviewing of student
handbook with all students at beginning of cold and flu
season.
May Evaluate district-wide program effectiveness (Video/Handbook
Only).
June Prepare for 1999-2000 school year. Full implementation of
program with Designer Health Masks introduced into all
schools.
Q3: Who have you chosen as a community partner to help your team implement your plan and why? What resources and expertise does this organization have that will contribute to your project?
We have chosen the St. Tammany Parish School Board to be our community partner because their cooperation is most important to the success of our school epidemic control program. The Central Office must give us permission to show the video in all classrooms, distribute the student handbook to all students, and distribute the materials for making the Designer Health Masks.
The Central Office supports our idea of students wearing the Designer Health Masks (on a voluntary basis) during the cold and flu season. They will help us get the word out to all the schools in our district and encourage them to participate in our program.
They can also help us monitor the success of our program by providing us with rates of student absenteeism. After the first year of our program, we will compare the rate of absenteeism from the year before we conducted the program to the rate of absenteeism during the year we conducted the project.
© 2007 John I. Swang, Ph.D.