Students volunteer during Community Care Day
On a beautiful Saturday morning, dozens of EVMS students were eagerly waiting as hundreds of Norfolk residents made their way to the New Hope Christian Community Center for free health screenings, preventative health information, games and more.
Community Care Day is an annual event for EVMS and this year Student Government Association leaders made it all the more special by partnering with New Hope Christian Community Center to make it a joint effort. Students taught attendees how to do CPR, provided blood pressure checks and glucose screenings.
EVMS organizers say New Hope’s mission to serve those in need directly aligned with their goals to address community-wide health disparities. “While we treat individuals in the clinic or in the hospital, many people in our community have limited access to healthcare or can't access it at all,” says Evan Leung, MD Class of 2024. “It’s important to reach out to these medically vulnerable populations and help them obtain access to routine healthcare in order to ensure that we are treating all of our community.”
The EVMS event was initially launched in 1993 as Primary Care Day, where community members could come to the EVMS campus and learn more about their health. Thirty years later, this student-led effort is still making an impact.