01/17/2024
Digital Volunteering Program:
Online Public Health Community Service Outreach Program
In January 2018, the APUS Public Health program implemented an Online Public Health Community Service Outreach Program.
The purpose for this program is to provide service to improve the health of communities through different activities, programs, and engagement.
Many public health professionals provide community service in some capacity. Technology has revolutionized how individuals approach various activities. The internet has influenced this new era with more digital natives, and the social media surge has contributed to online communities.
The American Public University System is a unique global community through online education and not bound by traditional campuses or geographical location. Because of this, APUS students’ community service is limited to their location, but this does not provide a continuity of opportunity or availability to all public health students. The Online Public Health Community Outreach Program provides a solution by giving all public health students an opportunity for community service.
In this program,
• MPH students can participate as digital volunteers to serve the online community. Email distribution and classroom announcements are used to notify students of community service opportunities.
• All digital volunteers are mentored by Public Health faculty. Students are accepted on a rolling basis to participate in the program.
• Digital volunteer students participate in community service and perform various online activities including:
o Health education campaign
Health education campaign: the following health campaign journal article was authored by a student (now an alumna) and two faculty members. This research study was tailored to African Americans since they have a higher risk of hypertension.
P***k, K., Sapp, J., & Sedillo, J. (July 2020). Using Facebook Ads to Promote Blood Pressure Checks Among African Americans in the United States: A Descriptive Study. J Health Soc Sci. 5(3):343-354.https://journalhss.com/wp-content/uploads/jhss_53_343-354.pdf
o Health communication campaign (to various organization, agencies, local communities). Themes are used in Facebook posts, paid Facebook advertisements, or other social media.
Example: Dimensions of Wellness Challenge – Daily challenges are created by digital volunteers. This is an 8-week challenge. You can see the daily posts at https://www.facebook.com/APUSpublichealth/.
Facebook posts are created for various health topics and health awareness months.
o Social media marketing
o Write online blog articles with their faculty
o Health webinars
o Publish in peer-review journal their capstone topics
o Write small research grants with faculty (This provides great research learning experiences and enhances faculty-student mentorship. Student interns participate in research projects including research methods and data analysis)
These activities are done via social media postings, resource liaising, health education in the community, discussions, student health groups, and identifying stakeholders and community partners. Research interns can use their research projects for their capstone course when completing the Article as Thesis curriculum. Many students have published in online blogs. If you are interested in any of the topics below please reach out to the faculty member. If you have any questions, please let us know.
