Q: What are the demographics of the Lawndale/Garfield communities?
A: Go to our history page for a good summary of the Lawndale community.

Q: When is the LSMP?
A: The LSMP begins on Tuesday July 1, 2008 and ends on Saturday August 2nd, 2008. The first week begins on a Tuesday, and involves 3 days of orientation and training in anticipation of 4 complete weeks in the neighborhoods and seeing patients with providers in the clinic. We ask you arrive on Monday night (6/30/08).

Q: How much does it cost?
A: Project tuition is $700.00, which includes housing, weekday meals, and materials. There is also a $25 application fee, included in the $700.00. We encourage you to raise funds for this project as you would for any other mission project.

Q: When is the application due? Are there other deadlines I should know about?
A: The application is due, in it's entirety by March 14, 2008. The LSMP committee will make decisions and status letters will be mailed on or before April 1, 2008. If accepted you will have 15 days to sign the commitment letter and mail it back to us.

Q: What will the participants actually do?
A: Great question! You will initiate neighborhood contact with existing LCHC patients (adults and children), performing home visits with those patients not accessing routine care to manage their chronic care conditions; specifically, asthma and diabetes. Secondly, you will experience direct patient care, twice weekly shadowing a Lawndale clinician, seeing both adult and pediatric patients in multiple clinical settings, and building insights into what it means to be a Christian serving the poor as a health care provider in an urban setting. Finally, you will participate in weekly community health fairs, co-sponsored by affiliated churches within the community, which will offer basic health education, immunization screening and blood pressure checks.

Q: Can you give me specifics about a typical day?
A: Most weekday mornings will consist of either scheduled small-group time or didactic seminars, with the majority of two weekdays dedicated to shadowing a Lawndale clinician. On two other weekdays we will be conducting home visits in various neighborhoods. Evenings will have much more limited schedule, with allowance for personal reflection and unstructured group fellowship. Our day-off is Wednesday (tentative). On Saturdays we conduct a 4-hour community health fair with a co-sponsoring neighborhood church. Sundays we will participate in worship and Bible study with the Lawndale Community Church community.

Q: Where will we live during the month?
A: Project participants will live with host-families who are part of the Lawndale staff for the entire 4 weeks of the project. If necessary, transportation will be provided between your host home and the Lawndale Christian Health Center. We are committed to ensuring that your housing will be clean, safe, and suitable for building affinity within the Lawndale community.

Q: What kind of patient contact will we have during the LSMP?
A: As a participant, you will be in direct contact with adults and children during your home-visits in these neighborhoods through this 4-week strategic community health outreach. You will take part in an outreach to those patients not accessing routine care, including patients newly assigned to the health center by various managed care organizations.
You will also have the opportunity two days each week to learn alongside mentor doctors who work at the Lawndale Christian Health Center. In other words, plenty!

Q: Who can I contact with more questions about LSMP?
A: You can e-mail the LSMP coordinator at lsmp@lawndale.org or call Nicole Milano-Leyva at 773.843.3000 x1218.