History
Welcome to Medstart, an organization of university students working to educate communities about critical issues that impact today's children and to encourage a spirit of advocacy for children and families in need. Medstart was founded in 1991 by a group of medical students at the University of Michigan concerned about the lack of information they received during the first two years of medical school about issues concerning children. The name Medstart (i.e. Head Start) was chosen in keeping with the belief that students lack a fundamental understanding of the many challenges that children face, what can be done, and why it is in all of our interests to act. Members of Medstart believe that a holistic and well-rounded approach to understanding and dealing with children's issues can be constructed by bringing together students from many varied professions and backgrounds. With this understanding, Medstart was designed as a coalition to include students from nursing, medicine, public health, social work, dental, business, law, and others at the University of Michigan and surrounding community.
Today, Medstart gives students a head start toward understanding these critical issues. Through our efforts, students carry the tradition of advocacy with them into their professional lives, giving children a voice in the decisions of tomorrow's leaders. Medstart believes it is important to take a holistic, multidisciplinary approach to child advocacy. We share a simple vision, that children should have every opportunity to be healthy and happy.
One of the major goals of Medstart is to expose current and future professionals to children's issues early in their careers. In doing so, we hope that children will have a louder voice in decisions made by business leaders, lawyers, politicians, physicians, teachers, and many others when they are going about the business of shaping our country. We hope to be planting the seeds that allow professionals to learn how to reinvest in their communities and the country's children.
Mission
Short-Term:
- Allow students to see first-hand the obstacles and challenges endured by socioeconomically disadvantaged children and their families, and encourage the students to help combat those problems;
- Stimulate volunteering among professional and graduate students who can have an impact on the access to and quality of services available to children and families in need; and
- Encourage students and student organizations to work together in pooling resources and talents to reach a common goal.
Long-Term:
- Create a network of students from various fields that will be maintained as they become professionals in an effort to address some of the aforementioned challenges;
- Translate an awareness of child and family crisis into real and sustained solutions, rather than cosmetic, politically attractive responses that leave the underlying causes of child poverty and misery substantially unaddressed; and
- Convince future professionals to work for, rather than just talk about, the protection and future of our children.