Khushi Sharma
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Natalie Sampson
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: U of M-Dearborn College Education, Health, & Human Services / Other
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Oral5
Session: Session 6 – 4:40pm – 5:30 pm
Room: Breakout room 2
Authors:
Presenter: 3
Abstract
Environmental Research to Action(EHRA) Academy is a summer program conducted in the Dearborn community to educate younger members of the community(16-18 year olds) on environmental health(air pollution, water pollution) and policy. Within the Dearborn community, 14.7% of members have diagnosed asthma, while 14.7% of community members had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In addition, when looking at self-reported data, 24.0 % of the community had reported that they did not have good mental health for 2 weeks or more, which is higher than the average in the US. Historically, the program has been performed using community-based research principles. An example of this is that within the program, the participants conduct presentations based on their learnings within the program to relevant members of the community. EHRA includes a curriculum that details environmental health and justice, air pollution, data and mapping of environmental assets and concerns, community science, policy advocacy, and environmental health literacy and risk communication. This upcoming academy, the research team is attempting to expand the program towards talking about water pollution. Based on the previous academies conducted in 2018 and 2019, it was found that EHRA was extremely helpful in educating 16-18 year olds about these topics in a matter of two weeks. In 2018, before the program many students averaged a score of 1.9-3.1 of confidence in relevant topics(1 being low confidence, while 5 being very confident. After, their average increased to a range of 3.5-4.6 of confidence of topics presented in the program. A similar trend was experienced in the 2019 version of the program.
Environmental Studies, Interdisciplinary
