Become a Member

Health Journalism 2024

HJ24 Field Trips

  • Thursday, June 6

This year, not only are we offering more than 75 sessions on a wide variety of health care topics, but also three uniquely themed field trips for journalists registered for the conference that are sure to inspire story ideas.

Sign up here

A special thanks to our local hosts, New York Health, Mount Sinai Health System, The Commonwealth Fund and The John A. Hartford Foundation, for highlighting the notable work being done in New York City. Our hosts’ suggestions and connections helped make these field trips possible.

Alternative and community-based approaches to better health

  • 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. ET, Thursday, June 6
  • Mount Sinai Louis Armstrong Department of Music and Medicine
  • Mount Sinai Harlem Center
  • Mount Sinai Louis Armstrong Department of Music and Medicine
  • Jon Batiste plays piano at Mount Sinai Louis Armstrong Department of Music and Medicine

Photos courtesy of Mount Sinai Louis Armstrong Department of Music and Medicine and Mount Sinai Harlem Center

Field trip stops

  • 9:30 a.m.: Washington Irving School-Based Health Center
    The Washington Irving School-Based Health Center has been providing convenient, no-cost and confidential care to high school students at the Washington Irving Campus High School since 2023. During this site visit, participants will tour the clinic and speak to a diverse team of health care providers about their role in helping to meet the needs of young people in this community.
  • 10:45 a.m: Mount Sinai Louis Armstrong Department of Music and Medicine 
    Music is good for the mind, body, and soul, and Mount Sinai’s Louis Armstrong Department of Music and Medicine can prove it with peer-reviewed research and patient testimonials. On this site visit, the director of the department, Joanne Loewy, will share the compelling history of this 20-year-old facility and the wide range of services it provides. On the tour, participants will get to watch two live music therapy sessions, including one specifically for patients undergoing radiation, and witness the magic that happens in the recording studio.
  • 1:30 p.m.: Mount Sinai Harlem Center
    Located in the heart of Harlem, the Mount Sinai Harlem Center opened its doors last year to provide specialized care to people in the community who need it most. Participants will learn about the mission of this brand new, one-stop-shop health care facility. They will also meet with clinical team members, tour the Jack Martin Fund Center, the behavioral health department, the new dental care floor, which boasts of skyline views of the city, and hear from patients about the impact the center is having on their lives.
  • 3 p.m.: OnPoint NYC
    Since the start of the pandemic, overdose deaths have increased sharply in New York City with significant impact on Black and Latinx communities — a trend that has been observed across the U.S.. In 2022 alone, more than 3,000 New Yorkers died from opioid-related overdoses. During this site visit, participants will tour one of OnPoint NYC’s two overdose prevention centers, the only two such facilities up and running in the U.S. OnPoint has been recognized and replicated as a model in other cities because of its approach to harm reduction and recovery, which staff believe “starts at the point when you stabilize someone’s life through stable housing and meals.” 

Participants will be asked to purchase their own lunch during a group lunch break.

Sign up here

The benevolent battle against food insecurity in NYC

  • 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. ET, Thursday, June 6
  • The Westside Campaign Against Hunger
  • The Westside Campaign Against Hunger
  • The Westside Campaign Against Hunger
  • Hell's Kitchen Farm Project

Photos courtesy of Westside Campaign Against Hunger and Hell’s Kitchen Farm Project

Field trip stops

  • 10 a.m.: Westside Campaign Against Hunger
    According to a recent New York State Department of Health report, one in four adults in the state is experiencing food insecurity. One of the largest food pantries in NYC, The West Side Campaign Against Hunger, is alleviating hunger by ensuring that all New Yorkers have access, with dignity, to healthy food and supportive services. During this site visit, program leaders will share how the organization has evolved from a small pantry in a church basement to one of the largest anti-hunger organizations in NYC, serving 80,000 customers across 30 community distribution points with the healthiest food in NYC (52% of the 4 million pounds of food distributed is fresh produce). Then, you will observe volunteers and Westside Campaign staff, in real time, unpacking tens of thousands of pounds of purchased and donated food supplies, packing up hundreds of 4-day supply boxes of groceries, and distributing food to the 500-700 people waiting in line for this emergency food. The next stop on the tour will be the operations area, which was once a choice model food pantry (the first in the nation), and its waiting room. Now this area is the base of volunteer operations for the organization’s 86th street location.  Finally, this trip will wrap up with an interactive Q&A with members of the WSCAH community about the organization’s impact.
  • 11:45 a.m.: God’s Love We Deliver
    It began nearly 40 years ago when one compassionate hospice worker delivered a meal to a very ill patient living with AIDS in Manhattan. It is now the only food and nutrition nonprofit in NYC that provides medically tailored meals, addressing more than 200 diagnoses, nutrition education and counseling for people living with severe and chronic illness. During this site visit, you’ll see the God’s Love mission in action, starting with the rooftop herb garden. Then, you’ll tour the 10,000-square foot kitchen, meal fulfillment area, volunteer space and more. You’ll also enjoy a catered lunch by professional in-house chefs followed by a presentation led by Chief Business Development Officer Dorella Walters on how God’s Love We Deliver works with health care partners and supports the health care system and clients’ continuum of care.
  • 2 p.m.: Hell’s Kitchen Farm Project
    In a survey two years ago, residents of Hell’s Kitchen said their neighborhood needed better access to healthy foods. One project that has been trying to alleviate the problem of food insecurity in that part of NYC is the Hell’s Kitchen Farm Project, a 4,000-square-foot rooftop garden at Metro Baptist Church. The project has been providing access to fresh, high-quality produce through its local food pantry for 16 years. The farm grows roughly 500 pounds of fresh produce annually, which is distributed through the bi-monthly food pantry and hot lunch program. During this site visit, you’ll see the food pantry area, meet the manager of the twice-weekly hot meal program for newly arrived asylum seekers, tour the rooftop garden and chat with Metro Baptist Church Executive Director and Pastor (and founder of the Hell’s Kitchen Project) Tiffany Triplett Henkel and Food Pantry Director and Program Associate Aaron Moore. 

A few important notes about this trip:

  • Closed-toe shoes are required.
  • There are active beehives at the Hell’s Kitchen site. While typically docile, some visitors have been stung by the bees. People with bee allergies are advised to take extra precautions.
  • To view the rooftop garden, you must walk up a 4-floor narrow stairwell with no disability accessibility. People who wish to skip this part of the tour can stay in the library until the rest of the group returns.

There is a $25 fee for this field trip to cover the cost of lunch at God’s Love We Deliver

Sign up here

A ‘rat safari’ led by NYC Rat Czar Kathleen Corradi (FULL)

  • 12:30 – 4 p.m. ET, Thursday, June 6
street rat

Rats have brought humans cures and treatments for many health conditions. But they can also be destructive and carry diseases. The pandemic and reopening of many sidewalk dining spaces have created the conditions for an increase in rat populations in many U.S. cities, but no city’s challenges with the rodents has been as high profile as New York City’s.

Join NYC’s Rat Czar Kathy Corradi on this three-hour journey into the world of urban rats. This walk will highlight the relationship between the built environment, human behaviors, and rat biology. Come curious and ready to walk!

Field trip stops

  • Midtown outdoor dining (55th and 56th streets between Fifth and Sixth avenues)
    Outdoor dining structures were a lifeline for NYC during COVID-19. The emergency structures, which are being phased out with the new NYC Dining Out program, allowed for outdoor dining, social distancing, and enlivened streetscapes. They also provided ideal habitat for the Norway Rat. Explore these structures and learn about NYC’s new program and approach to keep outdoor dining alive and rat free.
  • Interagency approach to public pest management (115th Street between Third and Lexington avenues)
    Public properties play a large role in urban pest management. Learn more about NYC’s interagency, integrated pest management approach as we visit a single block that contains a school, housing development, park, and city health building. 
  • W. 107th St and Columbus Avenue: Future of Trash, NYC Containerization
    Witness the “trash revolution”! NYC’s path to sustainable rat mitigation is paved with rethinking how waste is managed. Take a look at NYC’s Containerization Pilot, at a NYC Public School, and discuss how waste and rats go hand and hand.  
Sign up here