LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The program connecting Louisville kids impacted by gun violence to healthcare professionals is working, according to a newly published study led by UofL Health and a local non-profit.
Future Healers was created in 2020. They help kids ages 4-13 by teaching them about the medical field and the opportunities it offers.
Now, we're learning 60% of the youth in the program, now totaling more than 120 kids, are interested in a future career in health sciences. That's based on the new findings published in The American Surgeon.
The future healers program is a partnership between UofL Health and Christopher 2X Game Changers.
This study surveyed 92 children and 64 caregivers. It also noted 91% of children and 79% of caregivers self-reported trust in the health care system.
The question was whether an effort to connect medical students, a trauma center and the community would make a positive difference on Louisville's kids.
"Our paper says yes," Joseph Holland, a UofL Health medical student who contributed to the research, said.
Holland, 28, grew up in west Louisville, and he said it means the world to him to be able to help kids also from that part of town.
"It's a part of the reason why I was so invigorated to start and be a part of the founding of this program. To be specifically addressing some of the issues that are a part of the community I'm from just makes my life so much more worth living," he said. "I think these kids are clearly trying to encourage the passion that I already have unbridled in myself."
Fellow medical student Baylee Polzin, also a co-executive director of Future Healers, said the goal is to 'show these kids that they're not defined by their past, their history, [or] where they come from.'
Holland said their next study will focus on hearing from parents.
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