UNIVERSITY COALITIONS for GLOBAL HEALTH

The Beginning…

In March 2005, the University Coalitions for Global Health (UCGH), originally called the UCGH Resource Group, was publicly launched at the Campus Outreach Opportunities League (COOL) Idealist Conference in Berkeley, CA. The Resource Group held all day global health awareness, advocacy and professional development seminars. The website www.ucgh.org was launched in tandem with the conference.

From the wide reaching networks of each member organization, the Resource Group recruited 70 leaders around the country to mobilize their respective campuses around the first nationwide campaign-RX for Survival: A Global Health Challenge.

Campus organizers are born…

In June 2005, as part of the campaign, the UCGH Resource Group held its first global health organizer orientation and training in conjunction with the Global Health Council’s annual conference. Thirty students from around the country came to Washington, D.C. for campus organizing and leadership workshops.

In October of 2005, the Resource Group brought together 30 student leaders at a retreat center in Maryland to build on the previous training by incorporating community and media outreach skills. The group also ramped up mobilization in preparation for the upcoming RX for Survival Campaign.

Organizations join forces with UCGH…

The spring of 2006 was a turning point for the Resource Group. Due to the huge success of the RX for Survival Campaign, there was increased interest in UCGH. That summer, the UCGH Resource Group restructured its focus. They dropped the “Resource Group” title, created a steering committee to guide the direction of the coalition, and clearly outlined the two forms of membership: national member organizations (NMOs) and campus organizers.

In the fall of 2006, the UCGH established the first ever “Organizers Tour.” The UCGH public outreach fellow, along with representatives from the steering committee, traveled to different universities across the nation training students on global health issues and advocacy. The tour was also used as a forum to launch UCGH’s 2006-2007 advocacy campaigns, which were: HIV/AIDS, health-care workers and access to essential medicines.

World AIDS Day was a success…

The rest of 2006 was spent traveling to universities to promote UCGH’s World AIDS Day events. On December 1, 2006 the Fight AIDS: Break the Bottleneck Campaign occurred all over the country. UCGH NMOs like the Student Global AIDS Campaign, led a march of more than 400 people through the streets of Washington, D.C., while students at Case Western University and University of Pittsburgh demonstrated on their campuses by carrying the empty white coats of African doctors as an illustration of the lack of public health infrastructure.

Riding off the success of World AIDS Day, UCGH was asked to launch the international health section at the 2007 Idealist Campus Outreach Opportunities League (COOL) Conference in Chicago. The momentum that was gained at the conference continued into the February AIDS Week of Action when UCGH campus organizers collaborated with NMOs on various advocacy and awareness events across the nation.

Youth gather for UCGH National Strategy Session…

The spring of 2007 was full of achievement and expansion. UCGH organized the inaugural student reception and youth advocacy training at the Global Health Council’s annual conference, where students from all over the world attended to learn more about the role that they play in becoming instruments of change. Also, UCGH created two working groups: professional development and advocacy. These working groups were unveiled in June at the highly attended UCGH national strategy session where youth leaders from all of the NMOs gathered to plan for the future of UCGH.

The Future…

Since its inception, UCGH has become the largest youth focused global health coalition within the United States and it continues to grow. In looking to the future UCGH hopes solidify partnerships in the U.S. and internationally to empower students to create change in their communities. Together anything is possible.