SCOPE health conference hopes to expand student volunteer program
By Jillian Ames
April 8, 2010 10:25 p.m.
Saturday morning bright and early the Students for Community Outreach, Promotion and Education volunteers will kick off their annual conference in hopes of recruiting more members and expanding their program.
According to George Yeung, co-chief coordinator of SCOPE, volunteers reach out to people in the Westwood community who go to one of three resource sites for health care: the UCLA Medical Plaza, the Robert Levine Family Health Center and the Simms/Mann Venice Clinic, which is one of the largest, entirely free clinics in the country.
SCOPE members connect people with a site close to their residency that provides free or low-cost services such as childcare, dental care and health insurance. Volunteers then contact the people a few days later to ensure that they are content with the referred service.
The conference will also discuss the accomplishments and goals of the student-run volunteer program SCOPE.
“The primary mission of SCOPE is to alleviate the barriers between poor families and the health care system, and to connect them with low-cost or free resources in the community,” Yeung said.
“When we are on campus, we oftentimes forget that we have an entire community around us without access to things like health care,” said Seema Mukadam, a SCOPE volunteer.
The conference is open to all undergraduate UCLA students interested in the medical field.
Speakers from different areas of the medical field will be leading the conference. Students will have the opportunity to decide which workshops they wish to attend depending on their interests, said Sherin Matian, another co-coordinator for SCOPE. Different topics of discussion include health disparities, nutrition, global health and the journey to medical school.
Beginning in 2003, SCOPE has continually added new projects that volunteers undergo each year. One of the most successful projects, called the Youth Empowerment Program, was created in 2007.
SCOPE members who are a part of the Youth Empowerment Program mentor an elementary student for one year, Yeung said.
“We really develop a personal relationship with the child,” said Cynthia Flores, a Youth Empowerment volunteer. “Many of these children do not have an adult figure they can tell their troubles to or to act as a role model.”
Flores said all the children come from low socioeconomic areas where gang activities are a threat.
“These children are more at risk to become involved in bad activities when they are older because of their surroundings,” Flores said. “Our job is to develop a long-term relationship with the child and to hopefully motivate them in the right direction.”
To motivate the elementary students to succeed later in life, SCOPE volunteers organized a picnic at UCLA and invited the students’ parents in hopes that the students would become excited about college, and the parents would recognize the importance of their children attending college, Flores said.
Volunteers establish and maintain long-term relationships, especially those who are involved in mentor programs. The program is expanding, as is the number of volunteers.
