Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships

Strong and Stable: Community Partnerships for Healthy Aging

This summer, Dr. Ruth Ramsey consulted with the Marin County Commission on Aging Fall Prevention Task Force to design and develop a series of six fall prevention workshops for older adults throughout Marin County. Dominican alumna Maria Martinez, BS, OTR/L, was hired to lead the workshops, some of which were in Spanish.

Participants were given a set of workbooks and taught exercises designed to help them improve balance and flexibility and reduce the risk of falling. Over 100 older adults participated, and plans are under way to apply for grant funding to do a “train the trainer” course for caregivers and health professionals working with older adults.

Dominican Honored for Community Service
The Corporation for National and Community Service in 2008 named Dominican University of California to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction for exemplary service efforts in .

Launched in 2006, the Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its commitment to service-learning and civic engagement.

The Occupational Therapy Department has been involved in service learning at Dominican since its inception in 1996. Occupational therapy students provide thousands of hours annually at community agencies serving children, adults, and seniors, including the Canal Alliance, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services, Marindale School, the Marin AIDS Project, Homeward Bound, Buckelew Programs, Senior Access, and Marin Brain Injury Network.

Occupational Therapy program director and chair, Dr. Ruth Ramsey, is a charter member of the service learning advisory committee, and works closely with Julia Van der Ryn, the director of service-learning at Dominican to help students connect theory to practice, deepen their understanding of civic engagement, and make positive contributions to their communities through these service learning initiatives.

Community Partnerships

Our community partners support the mission and vision of the Department of Occupational Therapy and work to provide lives of dignity, purpose, and meaning to persons with and without disabilities. Past, present and future partnership activities include internships, service-learning placements, program development projects, community practice labs, research projects, guest lectureships, joint grant-writing activities and faculty consultation.

Last updated: Aug 07, 2008.

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Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships