project horseshoe farm collage
 
 

What is community health and how can aspiring future leaders act individually and collectively to help our vulnerable neighbors and strengthen community health? 

Through focused effort and action, Horseshoe Farm has tackled these questions since our founding in 2007.

In 2009 we created an educational grant supported Community Health Gap Year Fellowship for top recent college graduates from across the country. We subsequently added Internships for undergraduate and health professions students.

Working as teams and with ongoing teaching and mentorship, Fellows and Interns participate in and learn from all aspects our pioneering multidimensional integrated approach to community health. They volunteer in our signature “health partners” program to support seniors, adults living with mental illness, and other vulnerable or isolated individuals. They volunteer in top notch after school programs and with local schools to help small groups of students.  They help develop and lead programs at local community centers and volunteer with local supported housing programs and nursing homes. They live and learn in one of our three wonderful partner communities (Greensboro, AL, Perry County, AL, and Pomona, CA) while participating in Horseshoe Farm's time-tested approach to helping our vulnerable neighbors and improving community health.   

These efforts all contribute to Horseshoe Farm’s steadfast mission of working with and building on the strengths of local communities, improving the health and quality of life of our vulnerable neighbors, and preparing community health and citizen service leaders for tomorrow’s communities. Please join us.

Fellow Outcomes:

Geared to our nation’s most promising premed, public health, and future community health leaders, Horseshoe Farm graduates go on to some of the top programs in the nation including:

  1. Sampling of Medical Schools: Stanford, UCLA, UCSF, UC Davis, Johns Hopkins, University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Columbia, Yale, Vanderbilt, University of North Carolina, Cleveland Clinic, University of Washington, Rush, Georgetown, University of Alabama Birmingham, Tufts, Jefferson, and many others.

  2. Sampling of Public Health, Nursing, Social Work, and Psychology Programs: Emory School of Public Health, University of North Carolina School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Cleveland Clinic School of Public Health, Columbia University School of Public Health, Emory University School Nursing, Cleveland Clinic School of Social Work, University of Alabama School of Psychology.

  3. Many Horseshoe Farm graduates have received some of the most competitive awards and scholarships at their respective institutions and numerous Horseshoe Farm graduates have received full merit based academic scholarships to the graduate or medical schools they have chosen to attend.

  4. Fellows are taking leadership roles in Academic Medicine, Community Health, Public Health, Public Policy, Health Administration, Education and Teaching, and other fields.

Selected Awards/Recognition for Project Horseshoe Farm:

  1. Project Horseshoe Farm awarded the “Lou Wooster Public Health Hero Award” by the University of Alabama, Birmingham School of Public Health, 2020.

  2. Project Horseshoe Farm selected as “Exemplary Community Partnership” by Auburn University Carnegie Community Engagement Initiative, 2019.

  3. Project Horseshoe Farm spotlighted in Appalachian Regional Commission/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report, “Creating a Culture of Health in Appalachia,” (https://healthinappalachia.org/bright-spots/case-studies/hale-county-al/), 2018.

  4. Project Horseshoe Farm selected as “Outstanding Community Partner Initiated Engagement Effort,” by the University of Alabama Center for Community Based Partnerships, 2014.

Horseshoe Farm Biopsychosocial Community Health Model

Horseshoe Farm’s unique multidimensional integrative approach to community health - Our approach centers around individualized volunteer service in support of our vulnerable neighbors (adults living with mental illness, the elderly, other isolated or vulnerable adults, and children). We provide consistent caring relationships and help with psychosocial factors that impact the health and quality of life of these individuals. More broadly, by acting as citizen volunteers and as caring, consistent neighbors, we help reinforce the social fabric that is so critical to the healthy function of local communities (1). Finally, by building broad relationships and connections and helping to support and connect multiple local partner organizations, we help strengthen the institutional infrastructure and the interconnection between institutions in local communities. This is all done while giving hands on experience, mentorship, and teaching to top students working to become tomorrow’s community health and citizen service leaders.

1. WEAVE, The Social Fabric Project, Aspen Institute

2. Horseshoe Farm Biopsychosocial Model with the third ring emphasizing the contribution of Social Infrastructure, Institutional Infrastructure, and Physical Infrastructure to community and social health. Horseshoe Farm’s integrative approach contributes to strengthening all three rings of both the above and the linked models of Community Health.

3. Horseshoe Farm’s Three Level Approach to Community Engagement