For low-income youth and families, traditional medical care is not sufficient to improve health outcomes. A prescription for antibiotics is not enough when there is no food at home. Poor health further entrenches families in poverty by jeopardizing educational attainment, economic stability and life opportunities.

Founded in the Boston Medical Center Pediatrics Department in 1996, Health Leads works to break this link between poverty and poor health.

Health Leads model is simple and effective: in clinics where it provides services, physicians can "prescribe" food or housing for their patients and their families. Undergraduate volunteers then connect those families to local resources to meet these needs, enabling them to achieve the stability and opportunity that lead to better health for their children.

Health Leads vision is to mobilize the nation's first corps of student volunteers to connect low-income patients with the resources they need to be healthy and, in doing so, create the next generation of leaders committed to tackling this country's greatest health challenges.

For more information, please visit our official website at http://www.healthleadsusa.org/.