Applicant/s name; title; Amanda Orley, MD (Pediatrics Resident) on behalf of Allies for Health; Partnership between UCSF Pediatrics Residents and SFUSD Hilltop High School for Pregnant and Parenting Students

Community Partner affiliation, if partner: Elizabeth "Bissa" Zamboldi-Moore (teacher at Hilltop High School), SFUSD Hilltop High School

Project dates: December 1, 2023 to December 1, 2026

Estimate of total budget requested: 

• Total per year for Allies for Health: $1,000
• Total per year for Hilltop Highschool (via Bissa): $1,000
• Total amount per year requested: $2,000
• Total amount requested from MZHF (3 years total): $6,000

1. Specific Aims

   We are turning to the Mount Zion Health Fund to help the Allies for Health program achieve our goals for this school year. Our specific aims are:  

   1. Provide Hilltop High School students with 3 hands-on clinical skills workshops ie: casting, urinalysis, venipuncture. To achieve this goal, the program requires transportation funding for the students as well as funding for the educational materials.

   2. Provide Hilltop students 1-on-1 longitudinal mentorship over ~4 one-hour long sessions, focused on career development in the health sciences.

   3. Take students on a field trip to UCSF campus to receive tour of clinical labs, and hospital spaces where they may someday work.

2. Anticipated benefit for underserved or vulnerable communities in San Francisco:

   Having a child should not preclude these young adolescents from achieving financial independence, fulfillment through service, nor meeting desired educational milestones. Further, it helps provide the students’ babies with routine, stability and age-appropriate care throughout the week. Not only are these Hilltop High School students raising our patients, but the students themselves are also hopefully future members of the healthcare workforce – also known as, our future colleagues.

   We see the Allies for Health program as a true two-way partnership between UCSF Pediatrics and Hilltop High School. UCSF Pediatrics Residents are getting the opportunity to teach and engage with the community we serve, and more importantly, Hilltop High School students are gaining long-term mentors and hands-on health care skills as parenting students. 

3. How the project addresses UCSF Mount Zion priorities and compelling San Francisco healthcare needs:

   Our program has 3 formal arms of programming: skills sessions, clinical site tours, and one-on-one longitudinal mentoring. Through our mentorship program, we have set the Hilltop High School students up with longitudinal mentors in those fields to help them turn these aspirations into reality. Last year, we also started to institute a teach-back session, where the students teach us about being parents. As Pediatricians in training, we hold medical knowledge but acknowledge our blind spots when it comes to parenting and the day-to-day responsibilities of having a child. The Allies for Health partnership draws on both Limud u’Manhigut (education to empower the next generation of health leaders at UCSF) and Kehilah (community building). We help them break a poverty and high-school dropout cycle that disproportionately affects parenting teens. Allies for Health is a true partnership, in that we are constantly getting feedback from the students and Bissa (full-time Hilltop Highschool employee and Allies for Health program liaison) on exact programming needs. Pre-and post session surveys have been a formal way for us to measure our impact. 

4. Description of partnership (or the intentions to build toward meaningful engagement with community partner), including type, history and duration

    In 2020, UCSF pediatrics residents developed this program called Allies for Health, which is a partnership between our residents and Hilltop High School. The overachieving goal of Allies for Health is to provide empowerment, mentorship and a supportive community where parent students can work towards completion of high school graduation requirements and receive assistance to become responsible, effective parents. We have come to get to know these students well and have explored their many career aspirations in the healthcare force including midwifery, phlebotomy, and translation services. Each summer, we have our planning meeting with Bissa Zimboldi-Moore, a teacher at Hilltop and our community partner, to discuss our budget and schedule for the next year of programming. This first meeting usually turns into Bissa giving us updates on where the students from our Allies for Health mentorship program have landed after graduating the previous May, which is an incredible feat for us all. We continue to meet with Bissa on a regular basis, 4 weeks before each of our programming events. In the interim, we converse over email to iron out specifics for upcoming events. 

5. How the community partner's experience and expertise was integrated into proposal development

   Since this program’s conception 3 years ago, there has been significant re-structuring based on student feedback and needs. For example, last year, it was determined that we need programming sessions in both Spanish and English, so this year our programs will have two distinct language specific sessions. Bissa, our community partner and Hilltop teacher, spearheads the feedback loop, via post-event surveys to her students. In developing this years programming schedule, we draw on last years surveys. One of the specific items Bissa requested from the Mount Zion Health Fund, which is outlined in the budget, is a transportation budget for the students. Prior surveys have noted that getting to UCSF is cost-prohibitive for some of the students, as well as purchasing lunch while on site. This Mount Zion Health Fund proposal has been written and approved by UCSF Pediatrics Allies for Heath Executive Board, as well as Bissa, on behalf of Hilltop. 

6. Roles and responsibilities of each partner (Please note: we are not seeking to fund partnerships that are based on a transactional [e.g., vendor] relationship.)

   UCSF Allies for Heath has different teams focused on the different arms of programming. For example, there is one team who organizes the mentorship program and is responsible for interdisciplinary outreach, mentorship matching, and organizing the sessions. There is a secretary who records minutes from all planning sessions. 

   Bissa is responsible for building the syllabus for the school year to include dedicated time for our respective sessions, given they take place during the school day. She also is responsible for headcount of participating students for each event, so that our UCSF team can arrange food, transportation, and appropriate number of facilitators. 

   Hilltop students are responsible for completing post-event surveys, in order to help us with further development of the program. While all sessions are voluntary, and require different amounts of time, it is up to the students which students and/or if the mentoring program serves their goals. 

7. Requested grant period (e.g., start date of December 1, 2023 or later and duration of project) Project start date and duration: December 1, 2023 - December 1, 2026

8. Upload Budget pdf in your own format, to include: total proposed project budget; total amount requested from MZHF; for 1-3 years with partner: amount per year for each partner. Include justification and line-item breakdown of revenue and expenses, including individual project team members' percent effort: See attached. 

9. If project includes community partner/s, also upload the following for each community partner:

   • Current year total agency budget (specify budget dates), with line item breakdown of revenue and expenses and staff FTE commitments: N/A
   • Board of Directors List: N/A