Center for Healthy Communities

History

The Center for Healthy Communities, which was formed in 1997, develops community-academic partnerships that improve health in urban and rural communities in Wisconsin. The Center integrates community-based education for graduate and undergraduate medical students into these partnerships, and conducts research, both locally and nationally, on community-identified needs.  

Partners

Our partners, which include the Housing Authority City of Milwaukee, S.E.T. Ministry, Inc. (Serve, Empower, and Transform), The Village at Manor Park, and the Milwaukee County Department on Aging, work with us on program development, implementation and management, community capacity building, health education and literacy, on-site case management, and provide financial support.

Philosophy:

The philosophy of the Center is based on "doing with instead of doing for or to."  The Center uses an asset-based approach that capitalizes on the strengths of both communities and academia.

Goals:

• Develop, implement, and sustain community-academic partnerships that promote health.
• Conduct and disseminate research to address community-identified health needs that includes a participatory model.
• Conduct research that can influence and inform health policy and advocacy activities.
• Integrate principles and practices of community health and community-academic partnerships into the Medical College of Wisconsin.
• Collaborate with other centers, departments, and institutions to expand community-academic partnerships.

For more information:

Center for Healthy Communities
Medical College of Wisconsin
8701 Watertown Plank Road
Post Office Box 26509
Milwaukee, WI  53226-0509
Phone:  (414) 456-8291   Fax:  (414) 456-6524
Email:  chc@mcw.edu