The Tilden Cancer Screening Project with Neerja

post written by CHC member, Neerja J.

A few weeks ago, I met with the Teen Outreach Program Facilitator for a homeroom class at Tilden Career Community Academy in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood.  Her class needed to do a service project to fulfill part of their graduation requirements, and they voted to do their project on cancer screenings in their community.  Since I was serving with the American Cancer Society, the Facilitator asked for my help in creating resource guides on free and low-cost cancer screenings available in the Back of the Yards, Bridgeport, Chinatown, and Englewood neighborhoods (where most of the students lived). 

I spent the next few weeks researching health clinics in these neighborhoods, as well as their billing systems and the types of medical services they offered.  I also plotted out bus routes between the neighborhoods and the clinics to make sure that the latter were easily accessible and would not require residents to stray too far outside of their own neighborhoods.  Finally, I also found educational materials on cancer screenings, and conversation models to help the students talk to their parents about the importance of screenings. 

I put all of the clinical information into the resource guides, and also created a presentation for the students on different types of cancer screenings, their importance, and where they could be done within their own communities.  Despite some technical difficulties, I had the chance to present that information to two classes at Tilden on May 10^th and 11^th.  I was impressed with how much the students already knew about cancer and screening methods, and I loved having the chance to answer the questions that they did have.  All in all, I enjoyed having the chance to interact with students and to serve outside of a hospital setting (I can’t even begin to describe what a change of pace it was from Stroger!)