Young Doctors DC (YDDC) grew out of the pressing health and education issues facing Southeast Washington. While the founders of YDDC were concerned about the poor health and education outcomes in this community, they also recognized the strengths, resilience, and the familial community bonds in Southeast. As a result, they married these familial bonds with the success of service learning, health ambassador, and Upward Bound programs, resulting in the idea for YDDC.
As an American Educational Research Association (AERA) fellow at the University of California - Berkeley, Dr. Malcolm Woodland, a Washington, DC native, studied academically successful urban after school and out-of-school time programs. He later joined with his good friends, Dr. Kwame Torian Easterling, a professor of medicine in Newark, NJ and Mr. Roderick Miller, a middle school teacher in Richmond, VA to develop YDDC. After several others joined and made critical contributions to the organization, YDDC won the Bright Ideas Challenge sponsored by the DC Social Innovation Project; thus, providing the organization's seed funding to develop future Young Doctors!
Wow!! I absolutely love this idea. We need more of these programs around.
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