About

Horseshoe Farm Fellows hard at work at the Farmhouse

Increasingly, communities are recognizing the value of and receiving the benefits from social entrepreneurial efforts initiated by community based service leaders. Social entrepreneurial leadership "combines the passion of a social mission with business like discipline, innovation, and determination," and often fills gaps where governmental or market based solutions have fallen short (J. Gregory Dees, "The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship").

Existing programs that help prepare social entrepreneurial community leaders can be found in education (Teach for America ), housing (Habitat for Humanity), and architecture (The Rural Studio), among other areas. However, in medicine and healthcare, areas acknowledged by most to be in crisis and in need of innovative thinking and grassroots solutions, there is a striking scarcity, if not total absence of community based leadership development programs which focus on preparing individuals to use their own strengths and to work with the strengths and resources of local communities to effectively meet needs and build on strengths in those communities.

Launched in the Summer of 2009, the Horseshoe Farm Fellowship is a pioneering attempt to rethink and provide a new model for how to prepare our most promising future community based service leaders in medicine and healthcare to lead effective grassroots community based efforts in their own communities once they have completed their education and training.

Students preparing for careers in medicine or healthcare as well as other students with strong leadership potential are invited to commit one year (13 months) to the Greensboro community and to the Horseshoe Farm Fellowship. Fellows are challenged to learn about and become engaged in the community as they are immersed in almost all phases and aspects of the development, management, and leadership of, and service in the programs of Project Horseshoe Farm. To further help prepare Fellows for leadership roles amid the complex systems they will likely face, Fellows are introduced through readings and discussions to topics including community involvement and engagement, an introduction to health care systems, management and leadership of non-profit organizations, health care law and ethics, health care economics, the structure and financing of the health care system, the history of American medicine, and health policy.

Horseshoe Farm Fellows Garwen Chen, Josh Rim, and Ella Pownall-Gray take a bow after their "Evening of Classical Music" community performance.

Taken as a whole, the Fellowship is intended to provide a rich and textured experience that will help prepare some of our most promising future leaders of healthcare and medicine to provide leadership in service to their communities and potentially to develop innovative community based solutions to the problems facing the broader healthcare system.

The one year residential Fellowship focuses on four broad areas:

Community involvement and engagement
The small size of Greensboro (population approximately 3,000) provides an excellent opportunity for Fellows to see and begin to understand the relations of different people and processes in a community. Fellows are encouraged to visit with and get to know local civic leaders and other members of the community. During their time in Greensboro, Fellows should be able to begin to appreciate local values and the contributions of different members of the community. They should also begin to see and feel their own role, impact, and responsibilities in the context of a community.

Direct service and support to others
Fellows have the privilege of working closely with and providing support to vulnerable members of the community, and from their experiences, gaining a deeper appreciation for the value of humanity in service and the important psychological and social factors that contribute to health and quality of life among vulnerable people.

Development, management, and leadership of a community based non-profit organization
Fellows are given the opportunity to gain valuable experience by learning about and being involved in nearly all facets of the development, management, and leadership of a small community based non-profit organization and its initiatives. The hope is to provide an introduction to knowledge and skills that will give Fellows greater confidence in pursuing broader leadership roles within organizations or in considering developing their own community based initiatives.

Health Care Systems Issues
Through readings and discussions, Fellows are introduced to and challenged to analyze and assess the forces and process acting within and upon health care systems. Readings include selections that give Fellows an introduction to:

    health care law and ethics
    health care economics
    health care organizations
    the structure and financing of health care systems
    the history and evolution of the American health care system
    current thinking about and possible future directions of health policy