Takes readings
Volunteers set up at shelters, meal services and outreach sites and take blood pressure for anyone who wants it, free, with no appointment and no paperwork.
Start a chapter
All fifty-three began with one person asking.
You do not need a medical degree, a budget, or a faculty sponsor lined up. You need a campus, a few people willing to give up a Saturday morning, and a national office that has set this up fifty-three times already.
What a chapter actually does
Not fundraising drives and not awareness weeks. A chapter runs screenings, and everything else exists to make the screenings happen.
Explains the number
A reading on its own helps nobody. Volunteers are trained to say what the number means, what raises it, and when it warrants a doctor.
Refers upward
Readings above the referral threshold are escalated using criteria set by the Medical Information department, not by whoever is holding the cuff.
Records what it finds
Anonymised readings go to the Research department, where they become the evidence base for what hypertension looks like in unhoused communities.
Six steps, roughly one term
These run in order, and the national office moves at whatever pace you do. Most chapters take a semester from first email to first screening.
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01
Ask
Email the national office with your campus and who you are. One paragraph is enough.
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02
Interview
A call with the Expansion department to check the site, the people and the timing are realistic.
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03
Charter
You register the chapter as a student organisation on your own campus. We supply the constitution and the paperwork.
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04
Train
Every founding member completes the screening protocol and is signed off by Medical Information before touching a cuff.
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05
First screening
You run it with someone from the national team present. They watch, correct, and hand it over.
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06
Go live
Your readings start flowing to Research, and your chapter appears on this site with its own contact details.
What we supply, what you bring
We supply
Expansion
An onboarding lead who stays with you until your first screening
Chapter Operations
Monthly check-ins, event playbooks and the chapter handbook
Medical Information
The screening protocol, referral thresholds and volunteer sign-off
Research
A place for your data, and co-authorship when it gets published
Marketing
Brand kit, chapter Instagram setup and recruitment templates
Finance & Grants
Fundraising templates and guidance on equipment costs
You bring
People
Three to five founders who will still be enrolled next year
A site
A shelter, meal service or outreach programme that wants you there
Recognition
Student organisation status through your own campus process
Consistency
A screening schedule you can actually keep during term
A reply
One person who answers email within a week, every week
Asked most often
Do I have to be pre-med? +
No. Chapters run better with a mix — the training covers everything clinical you need, and chapters need people who can organise, recruit and keep records at least as much as they need future physicians.
Is there a fee to charter? +
No. Chartering costs nothing. Your only real cost is equipment, and Finance & Grants will walk you through covering it before you spend anything.
Does it have to be a university? +
No. Most chapters are campus-based, but community chapters exist too — Greater Lehigh Valley is one. If you have people and a site, the campus part is optional.
Can I start one outside the United States? +
Yes. Eleven countries run national chapters. The protocol is the same; what changes is how referrals work in your health system, and Medical Information adapts that with you.
How long until we are screening? +
About a term. Chartering through your campus is usually the slowest step, and it is the one part we cannot do for you.
Send the first email.
One paragraph: your campus, who you are, and roughly when you want to start. The Expansion team replies to every one.