Students to spend break helping coastal residents

March 2, 2011

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — After a successful spring break trip to Franklin County in 2010, University of Florida College of Fine Arts students will once again spend their spring break helping residents in rural communities along the Gulf coast improve their health and preserve their unique culture.

UF Center for the Arts in Healthcare, known as CAHRE, students and leaders will conduct home health assessments, build a children’s sculpture and organic food garden at a local school and continue to collect oral histories of seafood industry workers.

Students also will undertake a major school-based theater program to address the high rate of sexually transmitted diseases in the county and train local artists to facilitate the arts for home-bound individuals in partnership with local senior services.

Franklin County is one of Florida’s areas of critical concern with 23.1 percent of its residents living below the poverty level, compared to 13.3 percent in the state. They also face challenges in the seafood industry resulting from recent oil spill, changing weather conditions and changing FDA regulations.

CAHRE’s Franklin County Project is designed to address critical health disparities as identified by local health and human services partners in Franklin County.

The UF team, led by Jill Sonke, director of the Center for the Arts in Healthcare, will travel with a team of 23 artists and health care providers March 6-12.