PCPH SCOPEs out Volunteering Projects

The Stanford division of Primary Care and Population Health, also known as PCPH, is deeply interested in care. So much so, in fact, that division support staff, led by Loto Reed, organized themselves into a project called SCOPE (Stanford Community Outreach Partnership Efforts).

There were several staff members who wanted to join together to give back to the community, Reed explains, and division chief Sang-ick Chang, MD, MPH, clinical professor of primary care and population health, as well as Jonathan Shaw, MD, clinical professor of primary care and population health and the newly-appointed Director of Community Partnership in 2018, are “100% onboard” with the efforts. SCOPE is currently nine members strong and primarily a staff group, although a few faculty members joined their March event as well.

“Our goal is to identify partnerships with community organizations that we can forge a strong partnership with and inspire members of our staff to join us in our efforts to help the underserved communities,” Reed states.

They hope to volunteer 200 hours for the remainder of 2018, and their March trip was a visit to Project WeHOPE in East Palo Alto, which aims to help people become healthy, employed, and housed “using innovative solutions for the homeless or at-risk in the community.”

During this particular outing on March 18, SCOPE members toured the WeHOPE shelter and “shared the amazing work they’re doing.” Reed describes it as “absolutely heart-warming and truly inspiring. It gave us the desire to want to help and serve even more.” The SCOPE team also made sandwiches and bagged 75 meals for residents that were coming in for the evening. As Reed puts it, “Making sandwiches was never so fulfilling!”