From needs assessment to sustainability planning. Frameworks for designing, executing, and measuring community health projects that last.
Every project starts by listening — not by deciding what the community needs. The strongest Aequitas projects are built with community partners, not for them.
Step 1: Identify your community. Where will you work? Who lives there? What health challenges are already documented?
Step 2: Find existing partners. Community health centers, free clinics, faith organizations, schools, and social service agencies already know what's needed. Start there — don't reinvent.
Step 3: Ask, don't assume. Conduct informal interviews or attend community meetings before designing anything. The most common mistake is building a project around what you think is needed rather than what the community identifies.
Step 4: Scope it. You have one academic year. What can you realistically build, execute, and measure in that time?
A well-designed fellow project has five components:
1. Clear problem statement. One sentence: what health need are you addressing, for whom, and where?
2. Community partner. An organization or institution that serves your target population and will collaborate on the project.
3. Intervention. What will you do? Be specific — not "improve health literacy" but "deliver an 8-session health education course at [partner organization] covering [topics]."
4. Measurable outcomes. How will you know if it worked? Pre/post surveys, patient counts, screenings completed, referrals made, materials distributed — define this before you start.
5. Sustainability plan. What happens when you graduate? The best projects are designed to be handed off to the next fellow cohort or absorbed by the community partner.
Set a timeline with milestones. Break your project into monthly goals. Share the timeline with your faculty advisor and community partner.
Document everything. Photos (with consent), data, feedback, challenges, pivots. This documentation becomes the basis for your journal article.
Communicate regularly. Monthly updates to your faculty advisor and chapter leadership. If the project hits a wall — and most do at some point — surface it early. Pivoting is not failure; it's good project management.
Budget. If your project requires funding, apply for an Aequitas chapter or fellow project grant. If the project can run on zero budget, that's even better — it's more sustainable and more replicable.
After your project wraps (or reaches a milestone), you'll write it up for the Aequitas Health Journal. The publication is a core part of the fellowship — it turns your project from a local initiative into a contribution to the field.
See the Journal Submission Guide for formatting requirements. Your article should cover: the community need, your approach, what you built, what happened, and what you learned.
Be honest about limitations. Every project has them. Acknowledging what didn't work makes your contribution more credible and more useful to the next fellow.
The best fellow projects outlive the fellow. Before you move on:
Document the process — not just the outcomes. Create a one-page "how to run this project" guide that the next fellow or the community partner can follow.
Introduce your successor. If the next fellow cohort will continue the project, introduce them to your community partner before you leave.
Leave the relationship intact. The community partner's trust is the most valuable asset. Make sure they feel respected, thanked, and willing to work with Aequitas again.
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