UM Partners

Community-Based Public Health Program

School of Public Health
Community-Academic Liaison Coordinator

The Community-Based Public Health Committee, the Community-Based Public Health Program and the Community-Academic Liaison Coordinator have all been established within the School of Public Health to maintain continuing support of community-based research, teaching, and service activities; to develop and sustain new and existing partnerships; and to connect students and faculty with community organizations and public health agencies in joint projects. Long-term partnership relationships have been developed with over 20 community-based organizations in Detroit and elsewhere, serving a broad diversity of populations and reflecting a wide variety of approaches to public health.

Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center

The Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center (URC) (www.sph.umich.edu/urc) is a collaborative partnership involving the University of Michigan Schools of Public Health, Nursing, and Social Work, the Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion, eight community-based organizations (Community Health and Social Services Center CHASS, Communities In Schools, Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, Friends of Parkside, Latino Family Services, Neighborhood Service Organization, Rebuilding Communities, Inc/Warren-Conner Development Coalition), and Henry Ford Health System. In addition, the Detroit URC partnership includes other organizations which are represented in the Steering Committees for specific URC-affiliated projects.

The Center was established in 1995 and funded originally through a Cooperative Agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through their Urban Research Centers Initiative. The URC seeks to maintain an effective partnership that identifies problems affecting the health of residents on the east, southwest and northwest sides of the city and promotes and conducts interdisciplinary, community-based participatory research which recognizes, builds upon and enhances the resources and strengths in the communities involved. The research and interventions conducted contribute to the understanding of the relationship between social determinants, the built environment, protective factors, intermediate outcomes, and long-term health outcomes specific to urban environments. The knowledge gained contributes to the design of appropriate public health interventions, programs and policies aimed at eliminating health disparities. This work is conducted in accordance with a set of community-based participatory research principles adopted by the URC Board that foster, for example, equal participation by all partners in all aspects of the Center’s activities and recognition that community-based participatory research is a collaborative process that is mutually beneficial to all partners involved.

Some of the Detroit URC's current affiliated projects include Healthy Environments Partnership, Community Action Against Asthma, REACH Detroit and Neighborhoods Working in Partnership: Building Capacity for Policy Change.

Ethnicity and the Diagnosis of Affective Illness

Center for Research on Ethncity
Health Education School of Public Health

African Americans with mood disorders are more likely than White Americans to be misdiagnosed with schizophrenia. However, it is not known why this occurs. This study is part of a large, regionally diverse six-site collaborative project funded by the NIMH to examine the effects of patient ethnicity on clinical diagnosis.

Healthy Environments Partnership

School of Public Health
Department of Health Behavior and Health Education

One paragraph or less summarizing the project - Healthy Environments Partnership (HEP) is a community-based participatory research (CBPR)parternship working to learn more about how the social and physical environments are linked to risk for heart disease in three Detroit neighborhoods. Building upon HEP research findings, we will develop, implement, and evaluate a multi-level intervention to assess the impact of the built environment on obesity and other cardiovascular related conditions.

The Michigan Public Health Training Center

School of Public Health

The Michigan Public Health Training Center, funded by a grant to the School of Public Health from the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration, will be providing short-courses followed by web-based courses to the public health workforce, including employees of local health departments, health care providers, and community-based organizations, who work on community health programs. Next year short-courses will be given in Detroit, enabling Detroit-based public health workers in all three types of settings to acquire skills related to public health work.