Connecting and Improving Digital Literacy & Health Literacy Outcomes in Public Housing

The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh (HACP) is requesting grant funding to expand its existing digital literacy program, which is designed to bridge the digital divide among low-income public housing communities. HACP is proposing to incorporate health literacy programming by incorporating MedlinePlus and other online health tools into the curriculum of its existing digital literacy program. Improved digital literacy and health literacy in HACP communities will provide hundreds of low-income senior citizens, youth and adults with improved knowledge of a variety of health and wellness topics, improved awareness of diseases and illness and improved access to treatment and prevention measures.

HACP will use grant funds to support an additional full-time digital literacy professional for an eight-month period (Oct. 2019 – April 2020) and to purchase additional hardware and software that will be vital to this effort. Additionally, HACP will partner with Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (CLP) to provide training to the HACP personnel who will conduct digital literacy programming and incorporate health literacy into our curriculum.

CLP will provide HACP with training to enhance their knowledge of library programs and resources and how to incorporate these resources into regular HACP programming. Once training is complete, HACP’s digital literacy team will have the knowledge and expertise needed to incorporate health related resources into their curriculum. HACP staff will then work toward a goal of providing residents with access to a wealth of health and wellness information available online.
Staff will be trained to be fully proficient with the MedlinePlus website and will be educated on a variety of additional digital health-related resources that are readily available through the CLP’s online system. Moving forward, we will use our digital literacy programming as a vehicle to promote and improve health literacy among HACP’s resident population.