LOCATION: San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.

ORGANIZATION TYPE: Education

FOCUS AREA: Children / Families, Education, Environment / Land Use, Health Care Delivery, Housing / Neighborhoods, Income & Wealth, International, Public Health, Public Policy, Race / Ethnicity, Social Inclusion

HEALTH EQUITY INITIATIVES: We teach required social issues courses to sophomores so that they will understand the social, political, economic, and historical context of the issue they have chosen. Among the eight courses sophomores can choose from, three deal directly with public health issues: Medical Care for the Underserved, HIV/AIDS, and Basic Human needs. In these three classes, through readings, videos, research, and discussion, students are led to care about social problems (like health care for the underserved), learn what is being done by government or non-profits to address the problem, and then figure out where they can join in to address the problem. Normally, students begin with direct service and, hopefully, progress towards more advocacy work by the time they are seniors. Our CSL program is developmental in nature, moving from empathy and knowledge (Grade 10) to action (Grades 11 and 12) and the sense of having power to make a change (by graduation).