The Community Health and Access Intern at Mercy Health System will work as part of the Community Benefit/Community Health and Access team. The goal of our initiative is to engage key stakeholders in areas where our community members spend most of their time -where they eat, work & play. The focus of physical activity, healthy eating, and tobacco cessation directly affects outcomes of our identified community needs: Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease and Lung Disease.

Through community outreach and environmental change, we aim to:

• Increase awareness and community engagement in leading healthy lifestyles
• Make the healthy choice the default choice through cross sectors of our community
• Increase access and reduce barriers to healthy foods
• Increase access and reduce barriers to physical activity
• Support tobacco free living
• Improve the quality of life & encourage economic development

There will be many projects for our intern to work on, including:

• A smoking cessation campaign
• Industrial Park Trail Planning
• Locally produced food to retail/restaurants
• Bourbon County Food Alliance Team Work
• Implementing evidence based strategies in food retail and restaurants
• Local food pantry education
• Cooking demo/live social media events
• Patient navigation in the Children’s Wellness Clinic
• Group activities with the Children’s Wellness Clinic

• Communications some coursework or experience
• Customer Service competent without supervision
• Social Media competent with supervision
• Writing/Publishing competent with supervision
• Working with Children competent with supervision

SCA’s mission is to build the next generation of conservation leaders and inspire lifelong stewardship of the environment and communities by engaging young people in hands-on service to the land.