Funded by Aequitas.
Built by fellows.
Funding what fellows build — competitive grants supporting student-led community health projects across the country.
Grant & Award Recipients
Each year, Aequitas Health awards competitive grants to fellow and chapter projects demonstrating community partnership, measurable impact, and sustainability. Outstanding submissions are also recognized as Distinguished Finalists, and from the 2026–27 cycle as Honorable Mentions.
2026–27 Grant & Award Recipients
Full press release →Pediatric Vision Screenings
Vision screening at recurring sites across Mobile County with Impact America's FocusFirst program, using portable autorefractors so children are screened on-site and those who fail are connected directly to local eye care providers. More than 2,100 children screened, 141 identified, and 18 regularly active volunteers, sustained three years on donated time and equipment.
Beyond the Bandage: Building a Sustainable Framework for Community-Based Wound Care
A community-informed wound care framework for Chicago Street Medicine, built with faculty mentors, street medicine clinicians, and student volunteers. Standardized data collection identifies unmet clinical and social needs among people experiencing houselessness, and preserves institutional knowledge through annual leadership turnover.
From Incarceration to Care: Transforming Medical Education for a Marginalized Patient Population
A seminar on incarceration as a determinant of health, now embedded in the mandatory curriculum and reaching approximately 200 medical students a year, taught with a formerly incarcerated community member. After the first seminar, 94 percent of students surveyed felt more comfortable caring for this population.
From Clinic to Community: Expanding Free Menstrual Product Access to Vermont Shelters and Community Centers
Free menstrual product dispensers for Vermont shelters and community centers, extending a model piloted across four hospital and community health center sites. Vermont law requires public schools to stock free period products, but the mandate stops at the schoolhouse door.
Listening to Loss: A Rural Approach to Community and Clinical Care in Early Pregnancy Loss
Support for rural and Indigenous women experiencing early pregnancy loss at a 25-bed critical access hospital near the Standing Rock Reservation. Forty care kits are stocked in the local emergency room, clinic, and two outreach locations, and the hospital has agreed to provide $150 a year to keep them restocked, secured through its Auxiliary Committee.
From Incarceration to Care: Transforming Medical Education for a Marginalized Patient Population
Recognized in this category as well as the Fellow Project Grant. The seminar is now part of the mandatory fourth-year curriculum and is taught with a formerly incarcerated speaker.
Expanding Access to Long-Acting Reversible Contraception for Uninsured Patients: Implementing Intrauterine Device Insertion at a Student-Run Free Clinic
Intrauterine device insertion at the Interprofessional Community Clinic in North Chicago, with donated levonorgestrel-releasing IUDs from Direct Relief, 21 student volunteers trained, and capacity for one to two insertions each clinic session. The protocols, inventory processes, documentation templates and training workflows are now incorporated into clinic operations.
MWSM Winter Clothing Drive Benefit
A winter clothing drive for Midwest Street Medicine, whose volunteers regularly meet patients needing coats, hats, gloves, and socks. The team of seven, based in Rapid City and Sioux Falls, will set up collection sites in the fall and launch the drive in late fall and early winter 2026.
Expanding Access to Family Planning and Fertility Resources for Uninsured Patients
Family planning and fertility resources at the Interprofessional Community Clinic, led by former executive officers of its pelvic health clinic. In winter 2026–2027 the project will place pregnancy tests and emergency contraception in the clinic food pantry and provide clinician and staff training.
Empowering Leaders through Education, Vision, Achievement, Training, and Engagement
A career-exposure initiative for Black students from middle school through college, prompted by STEMM programs where many students knew of only three healthcare careers: doctor, nurse, and coder. ELEVATE will identify three to four community partners in the fall and host workshops and panel discussions over the winter.
Expanding Mental Health Screening in Aurora
Mental health screening with the DAWN Clinic in Aurora, which faces a shortage of preceptors and student involvement. The project will help identify patients struggling with mental health conditions and connect them with resources they can realistically access, beginning with the clinic's barbershop screening event in October.
Transgender Health Curriculum Restructuring
Moving a student-built transgender health workshop into standing institutional curriculum, where it reaches approximately 200 students a year and scores have risen significantly after the workshop in each of the three years data has been collected. The grant pays additional facilitators as the workshop transitions to faculty management.
Growing Healthy Futures: Building Health Literacy Through Community-Based Youth Education
Interactive health education delivered with Light of the Village by medical student volunteers. Teen sessions use anatomical models to build understanding of procedures such as Pap smears and speculum exams; middle school sessions cover menstrual health, period product education, and reproductive anatomy.
Program Evaluation: Health Equity Impact of the Pre-Clinic Assessment
An evaluation of the DAWN Clinic's pre-clinic assessment, which helps staff understand the barriers Aurora's uninsured patients face before they arrive. Findings will be shared with clinic personnel in late 2026 to determine whether the assessment should become routine for all new patients.
Bridging the Gap After Hospital Discharge: A Multilingual Healthcare Navigation Toolkit for New Patients in Vermont
A free, digital, easily updateable multilingual toolkit for patients navigating care after hospital discharge. It will be piloted with community and clinical partners, gathering feedback on usability, clarity, and language accessibility, and is designed to fold into existing discharge workflows.
Breathe Easy Vermont: Empowering Adolescents and Families Through Community-Based Asthma Self-Management
Asthma self-management workshops for adolescents and families, developed with the Vermont Department of Health Asthma Program and piloted at a community centre serving more than 500 families. Approximately one in twelve children has asthma, and an estimated 61 percent of those students have uncontrolled disease.
Enhancing Dermatologic Care for Uninsured Patients in Primary Care
A dermatology teaching series for primary care clinicians at the Barrier Island Free Medical Clinic in Charleston, developed with board-certified dermatologists. Three initial sessions cover topical corticosteroids, antibiotics, and antifungals, aiming at better prescribing and fewer unnecessary referrals.
Bridging Access: Menstrual Health, Dignity, and Sustainability
Menstrual health support at McKemie Place, a women's homeless shelter where the team has spent the past year providing reproductive health education and where hygiene products remain among the greatest persistent needs. Reusable products aim to give residents longer-term independence and reduce reliance on recurring donations.
Midwest Street Medicine Rapid City: Meeting People Where They Are
Weekly street medicine outreach in Rapid City, where the most recent count recorded 343 people experiencing homelessness. Distributing practical items such as sunscreen, socks, and hygiene supplies has increased interactions with the healthcare team and surfaced previously unrecognized needs. Outreach continues through spring 2027.
Project Canopy & Community: Expanding Green Space in Charleston
Tree canopy in Charleston, where unequal access disproportionately affects lower-income and socially vulnerable neighborhoods and nearly half of newly planted residential trees fail within five years. The project shifts the measure of success from trees planted to trees that survive.
Assessing spatial inequities in access to healthcare via multiple transport modes using the enhanced two-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) method
A tool that quantifies healthcare access by driving and public-transit time and maps where it breaks down, giving local organizations technical infrastructure they usually lack. Already used in two student-led projects, with an open source release planned.
Beyond the Bell
An education and mentorship initiative rooted in the applicant's experience of how neighborhood, schooling, and access to resources shape both academic success and lifelong health. In its planning phase, the project will identify a pilot site and recruit volunteer mentors by winter 2026–2027.
Cultivating epistemic disobedience in medical training with alternative epistemologies, medical systems, humanities, and poetry
Bringing alternative medical traditions, the humanities, and poetry into medical training to widen what medical education treats as legitimate knowledge. A two-hour lecture has been delivered to 40 predominantly BIPOC high school students through the CampMed program.
2025–26 Grant & Award Recipients
Full press release →ICC Skin Equity Initiative
A community-first approach to dermatological health disparities, consulting local leaders and community partners before developing curriculum. Features partnerships with Mano a Mano and the North Chicago Think Tank, using home-accessible formats like Facebook Live and podcast-style series to reach community members facing barriers to in-person care.
COPE Medication Adherence Project — Medication Support Toolkit
A data-driven quality improvement approach addressing medication non-adherence within populations served by COPE Community Services in Southern Arizona. The toolkit includes transportation assistance, bilingual medication explanation cards, pill sorting packets, and copay assistance for migrant and Indigenous populations.
Menstrual Equity at Nuvance Health
An implementation-ready initiative providing free menstrual products in visitor and patient-facing bathrooms throughout the Nuvance Health system. The project secured institutional permission for system-wide installation at the main hospital in Danbury, CT, and extends to outpatient community clinics.
ICC Vaccine/Screening Program Expansion
Expanding vaccination and preventive screening services at the Interprofessional Community Clinic to increase access for underserved populations in North Chicago.
Chicago Street Medicine for Homeless Care
Delivering medical care directly to individuals experiencing homelessness through street medicine outreach in the Chicago area.
Winter Supply Drive for Midwest Street Medicine
Organizing essential winter supply distribution for street medicine patients in the Midwest, providing cold-weather gear alongside basic healthcare services.
Mini Medical School Take-Home Curriculum Expansion
Expanding the Mini Medical School program with take-home materials and hands-on activities to extend health and science education into families and homes in underserved communities.
Chicago Street Medicine Chapter Development
Building organizational infrastructure for a sustainable street medicine program in Chicago, including volunteer coordination and community partnerships.
Health Equity Course Community Member Research
Integrating community member perspectives into health equity coursework through participatory research, ensuring curriculum reflects the lived experiences of the populations it addresses.
2024–25 Grant Recipients
Full press release →FutureCare Directions: Empowering Patient Choices at Anderson Free Clinic
Implementing advanced care planning services at Anderson Free Clinic, ensuring underserved populations have access to end-of-life care discussions and documentation. Includes patient education materials and provider training.
Mini-Medical School Family Engagement Program
Expanding the Mini-Medical School program to provide hands-on medical education to underrepresented elementary school students. Features take-home activities and bilingual materials engaging families in supporting their children's interest in healthcare careers.
Rapid City Student Healthcare Outreach Program
Establishing healthcare outreach services in Rapid City, South Dakota, targeting the city's homeless population — 75% of whom identify as Native American. The initiative lays groundwork for a future student-run clinic while providing basic health services to an underserved community.
CVHS UVMMC Vision Screening Program
Addressing transportation barriers affecting pediatric vision care through Champlain Valley Head Start. Uses Uber Health to improve follow-up rates for ophthalmology appointments where only 33% of children under three currently attend follow-up care.
Student-Run Clinic Food Pantry
Establishing a food pantry within a student-run clinic to address food insecurity among patients, integrating nutritional support alongside medical care.
MindRight Health Mental Health Coaching
Implementing culturally responsive digital mental health coaching for underserved young people through the MindRight Health platform.
Look at Larner, Next Network MCAT Preparation Program
Providing free MCAT preparation resources and mentorship to underrepresented students pursuing medical school admissions.
Period Poverty Initiative
Addressing menstrual product access for patients and community members in the Medical University of South Carolina service area.
Spanish Language Patient Portal Access
Developing resources and support to help Spanish-speaking patients navigate the health system patient portal, improving healthcare access and communication.
Your project could be next
The 2026–27 cycle is closed and its recipients are announced. Applications for the 2027–28 cycle open in summer 2027: $500 national awards for student-led community health projects, with decisions before ERAS opens.