Homeward Bound

In North Philadelphia, second-year medical student Seneca Harberger talks about healthful eating with a group of men in a homeless shelter not far from the School of Medicine.

He describes his favorite healthful snack—"blueberries and milk, yum, yum"—when one of the shelter´s residents stands up. "Where´s the demo?" he asks, smiling broadly. "Where are our treats, man?" The group erupts with laughter.

Harberger and a group of students visit that shelter as a part of TEAC´s domestic arm, the TEAC Homeless Initiative (TEACH). Founded in 2009, it aims to mitigate the "chronic public-health disaster" of homelessness in Philadelphia.

On any given day, more than 11,000 people are either living in shelters or on the streets in the tri-state, metropolitan area of Philadelphia. The area has the seventh-largest homeless population in the nation.* Usually, destitute populations are uninsured and lack access to basic healthcare.

"Homelessness in Philadelphia is a disaster scenario," explains second-year medical student Katie Guevel, one of TEAC´s co-chairs. "Especially in winter—it´s just not hospitable. We decided to take a similar approach to our international disaster-relief response and apply it to the chronic disaster right here."

Since 2009, medical students involved in TEACH have been visiting homeless shelters in North Philadelphia. Slideshow courtesy Virginia Sheaffer.

Once a week, TEACH visits four homeless shelters around North Philadelphia to provide health education and medical care. "Every time I go, it energizes me," Harberger says. "There are times we can help, even though we´re not actual doctors yet."

Sitting next to Harberger, Guevel nods in agreement. "I went to a shelter last year to talk about smoking cessation," she recalls. "Afterward, a woman said, ´I had no idea there was the equivalent of rat poison in my cigarettes. No one ever told me.´ That was a moment when I thought, ´I can make a difference, even with the little bit I know now.´"

*National Alliance to End Homelessness. The State of Homelessness in America 2012. Washington, D.C. 2012. endhomelessness.org/library/entry/the-state-of-homelessness-in-america-2012.

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