UGA to Z IMPROVING PUBLIC HEALTH
UGA Work is Crucial to SW Georgia’s COVID Fight Health care professionals in southwest Georgia were better able to plan for their providers’ and patients’ needs during the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to a customized report from the University of Georgia. Produced by the College of Public Health in coordination with the Archway Partnership, a UGA Public Service and Outreach unit, the report outlined the number of weekly confirmed COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations expected for Georgia’s 14-county Southwest Public Health District—a region that stretches from Lee County to Decatur County and includes more than 340,000 people. The information included in the report provided regional hospitals with more accurate estimations than national and statewide reports to help administrators better prepare for their specific needs, says Grace Bagwell Adams MPA ’09, PhD ’13, a member of the team that developed the report and an associate professor in the College of Public Health. The College of Public Health had previously created a similar report for Athens-Clarke County, with Bagwell Adams and her team basing their work off a statewide COVID-19 simulation model developed by UGA professors John Drake, of the Odum School of Ecology, and Andreas Handel, of the College of Public Health.
CONNECTING COMMUNITIES
Volunteers Map COVID Resources A team of volunteers, including students at the University of Georgia, created a COVID-19 Community Resource Map to help people find essential services that may help ease the burdens created by the coronavirus pandemic. The online map was created by GroundBreakers, a global network of community leaders operating in 51 countries with an emphasis on local, grassroots efforts. GroundBreakers was co-founded in 2017 by Sebastian de Beurs and Rara Reines AB ’19. The tool pinpoints the locations of testing sites, meal relief, unemployment support, homeless shelters, and community networks throughout the U.S. Within the first three weeks of the effort, volunteers mapped more than 12,000 resources in the U.S. “We saw community efforts popping up around the country, and they seemed very disconnected,” Reines says. “Our goal was to make these services as visible and accessible as possible.”
graphic by lindsay bland robinson
8
geo rg i a mag a z i ne | fa l l 2 02 0