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The Big Picture at Today's Pitt

Clinics Reach Out to the Community

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Health law. Child welfare and literacy services. Business consulting. Pitt community outreach centers and clinics provide those services and more.

An estimated 32,000 children in Pennsylvania have at least one parent serving in the military. Operation: Military Kids helps those children through initiatives like a Mobile Technology Lab that provides laptops and hardware to connect children with deployed parents. It’s part of the Pitt School of Social Work’s Child Welfare Training Program, a national leader in advocating for a better quality of life for Pennsylvania’s children, youth, and families.

In fall 2011, Pitt’s Office of Child Development (OCD) conducted workshops designed to give children a stronger voice in afterschool programs. The workshops were just one initiative among many that support OCD’s core belief that all children, youth, and families should develop in safe, supportive environments. To help improve the lives of families who require services, OCD has collaborated with such domestic and international partners as the Governor’s Commission for Children and Families, Early Head Start, and the Russian Orphanage Project.

The Community Leisure-Learn Program, Pitt’s oldest community outreach program, offers dance classes led by Pitt’s dance team, boxing classes, pick-up basketball games, and other athletic activities, as well as educational programs focused on disease prevention, control of movement skills, and stress reduction and relaxation.

In 2010, students in Pitt’s Health Law Clinic successfully fought for Medicare coverage of treatment for facial lipodystrophy syndrome, which ravages fatty deposits in the face and is caused by drug treatment for HIV/AIDS. The clinic gives free legal assistance to low-income individuals with health-related problems, and also has tackled legal disputes regarding coverage of treatment for cancer and organ transplantation. Other Pitt Law clinics are devoted to the environment, taxes, families, and immigration policies.