R.E.F.O.R.M. Café: A Virtual Social Justice Health Education Program for College Students

Speakers: Kristine Fleming, EdD, Kenya N. Washington Johnson, JD, and Maria U. Okeke, PhD

The need for social justice pedagogy is essential as health inequities become more apparent as a result of COVID-19 and current protests. Using the World Café methodology, the virtual R.E.F.O.R.M. Café was implemented as a community health program during remote-learning instruction. Using the Zoom break-out room function, students were provided an opportunity to generate three rounds of conversation to define change agency, willingness to act as a change agent, and ways to improve curriculum to encourage race equity reform. Recommendations from the study may assist health educators and practitioners to improve the course curriculum to involve social justice pedagogy and create virtual community health programs. Although health disparities in the U.S. have occurred for centuries, health educators and practitioners must come together to create a dialogue regarding the social injustices that continue to impact individual and community health and make recommendations for enduring change.

At the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:

1. Describe a health education program implemented via Zoom focused on social justice pedagogy in health education courses at a minority-serving institution.
2. Describe college student perceptions related to acting as a change agent related to race equity reform to prepare frontline employees.

For CECH you must complete the evaluation following the Livestream after purchase, please email education@sophe.org. There will be a live stream survey and a CECH evaluation of this program. Your feedback will assist us in planning future webinars. Thank you!