About Root Cause
Root Cause is an initiative led by USC School of Medicine Greenville students in partnership with USC School of Medicine Greenville faculty and staff, Prisma Health-Upstate team members, and community partners.
Each month, a free meal is provided by our students while various partners and health care experts provide resources and/or teach on relevant public health topics. There are many opportunities to get involved, so if you would like to join this initiative or learn more, please contact us via email at studentcommunityoutreach@greenvillemed.sc.edu.
In 2018, a multidisciplinary task force, inclusive of medical students, faculty and staff reviewed available data including the 2014 Greenville Health System Community Health Needs Assessment, the American Health Rankings 2017 Annual Report, and Furman University’s 2018 Needs Assessment to better understand the needs of communities served by Prisma Health-Upstate.
These data demonstrated that the community adjacent to USC School of Medicine Greenville was an at-risk community with a high rate of poverty, diabetes, obesity and low rates of access to health care. This community, Dunean, inspired us to work within the missions of both USC School of Medicine Greenville and Prisma Health-Upstate to improve the health of the communities we serve and to develop a program focused on addressing this community’s needs.
The USC School of Medicine Greenville Community Engagement Task Force met with members of the Dunean community (the Neighborhood Association, the Historical Society, United Way, the sheriff’s department, and members of two church congregations) to identify specific needs within the community that could be addressed by USC School of Medicine Greenville. Two main concerns were lack of community cohesiveness and barriers to access health care and preventative care for the community members.
Root Cause was developed to help address these specific needs.
This initiative would not be possible without the countless volunteer hours and support from our community partners.
- Access Health
- American Heart Association
- Bradshaw Institute
- Challenges, Inc
- Clemson Snap-Ed
- Culinary Institute of the Carolinas
- Dunean Neighborhood Association
- FAVOR
- Feed and Seed
- FoodShare Greenville
- Furman University
- Furman University Institute for Advancement in Community Health
- Future Focused Coaching and Wellness
- Greenville County Sheriff Department
- Greenville Housing Authority
- Greenville Tech Dental Program
- Habitat for Humanity
- Healthy Blue
- Hispanic Alliance
- Kim Gibson
- Kern National Network for Flourishing in Medicine (KNN)
- Livewell Greenville
- Meals on Wheels
- MedEx Academy
- New Horizon Family Health Services
- Nicholtown Neighborhood Association
- Pendleton Place
- Period Education Program
- Pheonix Center
- Prisma Health Accountable Communities
- Prisma Health Addiction Medicine Center
- Prisma Health Center for Family Medicine
- Prisma Health Center for Pediatrics
- Prisma Health Diabetes Educators
- Prisma Health Diabetes Prevention Program/Clemson Extension
- Prisma Health Internal Medicine Clinic
- Prisma Health Mobile Health Clinic
- Prisma Health Senior Care- PACE
- Prisma Health-Upstate Diabetes Educators
- Prisma Health-Upstate House Staff Senate
- Prisma Health-Upstate Injury Prevention
- Prisma Health-Upstate Mobile Health Clinic
- Prisma Health-Upstate Nutrition
- Project Host
- Safe Harbor
- SC Department of Mental Health
- SC Legal Aid
- SC Thrive
- Servants for Sight
- Sparrow Yoga
- Sustaining Way
- United Way of Greenville
- 13th Circuit Judicial Drug Court/diversion program
Each month we offer a variety of rotating programs centered around wellness and movement. These programs change every month to ensure we are including a wide range of public health topics. Programs include:
- A free healthy meal
- Produce boxes
- Benefit signups
- Blood pressure screenings
- CPR demonstrations
- Wellness workshops from the USC School of Medicine Greenville Students and Community Partners
- Health education
- Movement workshops
- And much more!
Volunteer at the event:
- help with set-up
- sign people in
- answer questions
- clean-up
Volunteer before the event:
- distribute flyers
- put up signs in the neighborhood
Donate necessary supplies for the Root Cause events:
- water for volunteers
- paper products such as napkins, plates and cups
- advertising flyers and signs
- toothbrushes
- toothpaste
- floss
- mouthwash
- baby wipes
- hand sanitizer
- masks
If interested in volunteering, please email StudentCommunityOutreach@greenvillemed.sc.edu.