CCPH Award Recipients

CCPH congratulates these award recipients for their work to improve higher education, civic engagement and the overall health of their communities.

2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002

2009 CCPH Award Recipient

Selected from a highly competitive pool of nominations, the Sizabantwana Project is the first international recipient of the CCPH Annual Award. This grass-roots project, developed through a partnership between the University of KwaZulu Natal School of Psychology and twenty primary schools in the Edendale and Imbali township area, aims to build educator capacity to address psycho-social issues in their school communities. In South Africa, many primary schools struggle with educational challenges that are compounded by the context of deep poverty and HIV and AIDS. In the Sizabantwana Project, meaning "helping children" in isiZulu, school educators and university psychologists first came together twelve years ago to form a support group for educators. These support groups became the catalyst for educators to address problems they see in their classrooms and work to improve health and education outcomes.

The Sizabantwana model is founded on principles of respect for the capacity of educators, respect for the educator's local knowledge as community members, and a belief that people are able to generate their own solutions. The project is essentially owned by the educators themselves who have come to recognize their own expertise through the Sizabantwana journey. This is clearly demonstrated through the fact that many of the educators now offer their own workshops to educate other educators on various issues.

Through the Sizabantwana Project support group, a number of successful interventions have been undertaken. These include a collaboration with a local hospital to provide care for students who are referred by Sizabantwana educators, the creation of vegetable gardens at the schools, the development of a widows' support group, the creation of a service-learning program that pairs university students with children in need of additional support, and the mobilization of resources for students dealing with learning difficulties and issues of sexual abuse.

Click here for the press release announcing the award.

Click here for the partnership's application for the award, which includes articles about the partnership from local and university newspapers and the slide presentation, Sizabantwana: A Visual Portrayal" that includes many photos of the partnership "in action."

2008 CCPH Award Recipient

The Partnership between the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA and the Decatur Community Association, Cutler, OH, USA began in 2002 when Hong Zhang, a University of Pennsylvania resident working in Parkersburg, West Virginia (WV) and Edward Emmett, a professor of occupational medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, learned that C8 was contaminating water of the Little Hocking Water Association (LWHA) in Southeastern Ohio. The C8, a chemical not found in nature, came from a DuPont production facility in nearby WV. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has declared C8 a probable human carcinogen that may delay childhood development. Concern in the LHWA about effects of C8 was heightened by information disparities between the community, regulators and industry.

In response, the University, local community, and local physician Dr. Zhang formed an Environmental Justice Partnership that obtained funding for a community-based participatory research study that found that C8 levels in residents were far above normal, and highest in children and the elderly. The major source of C8 was residential drinking water. On the day of the community meeting to report detailed results, DuPont announced it would supply free bottled water to LHWA water users. 78% of eligible households accepted this offer. In 2006, the partnership performed a follow-up study of 65% of the original participants. Over 90% had made some change in their water supply, and C8 levels had fallen an average of 25%.

The partnership employed an innovative method of disseminating results in the community. In what they have termed the Community First Communication Model, study findings are released first to study participants and then to the broader community, instead of publishing study results in scientific journals and hoping the results trickle down to the community. The resulting community ownership of the results altered the balance of power within the community, and helped lead to the voluntary decision of the chemical facility to provide free bottled water to those served by the water supply.

Click here for the press release announcing the award winner and the 3 honorable mentions described below.

Click here for the partnership's application for the award, which includes a list of partners, publications and presentations. Also includes are a poster presentation, a graphic describing the Community-First Communication Model, and an article from the March 2007 NIEHS News, "Beyond the Bench: Research Helps Clean Up Water Supply."

Click here for the study website.

Click here for photos of the partnership in action.

2008 CCPH Award Honorable Mentions

The Navajo Uranium Miner Oral History and Photography Project's main purpose has been to share the stories, experiences, and history of uranium mining and its health effects with the world and to have it archived for posterity. By educating a broad sector of the public, the project sought to contribute to campaigns that aimed to remedy or, short of that, at least redress historical injustices. The project is a community-university collaboration that has collected primarily qualitative data (oral histories) that have been used in a self published booklet, a full academic volume, an exhibit and a video and that participated in 2007 in congressional testimony on the issue. The universities involved are Tufts University School of Medicine and the Dine' College and the community is comprised of a pool of individuals, community organizations, and tribal agencies within the Navajo Nation. The project has spanned over 12 years with continuity through funded and unfunded periods. The project has employed a true community-based participatory research approach with community members involved in all aspects of the research. The participation of the individuals and community organizations and their outreach to miners affected by uranium mining in the community created a unique community building process and an enriching social action process generating in-depth discussion, conversations on uranium mining and health within the collaborative circles and outside, in turn it became a wider campaign and awareness project. Gathering oral histories of the miners as well as documenting the visual images was an effective tool that aided the process of bridging the gap between the affected and not affected, in sharing and in documenting this painful history to and for the new generation. The data has been employed for both academic scholarship (there is a long list of peer reviewed publications) and for education and advocacy by the community. Key successes of the project include distribution of 5,500 copies of the 64-page booklet, the majority for free, to Navajo communities and publication, in 2006, of an academic volume co-edited by university and community partners that was endorsed by the president of the Navajo Nation. The success of the partnership is attributed to mutual respect, flexibility, willingness to work hard, and a shared commitment to the issue. Click here for more information on the partnership's book, The Navajo People and Uranium Mining. Click here for excerpts of oral histories and photographs.

The LEAP BC™ (Literacy, Education, Activity and Play - British Columbia) is a 2010 Legacies Now program in partnership with the Province of British Columbia and the University of Victoria Institute of Physical Activity and Health Research. This community-campus collaboration involves community partnerships formed with government, non-government and stakeholder agencies at multiple levels (local to provincial). The mission of the partnership is to increase physical activity, literacy and healthy eating in the settings where children in their early years (0-5) live, learn andplay by providing free resources, training and ongoing support. A strong focus on bridging inequalities in children's early learning experiences places social justice at the core of the partnership. Together the partners have been able to leverage funding, and enhance provincial and local capacity through partnership building, networking and training. LEAP BC™ has produced a set of user-friendly, culturally and age appropriate resources for families and early learning practitioners. The partnership and the strategies pursued with other key partners will have lasting benefits for the children and families of British Columbia. Enhancing early child development can have a far-reaching impact on a child's future. Click here to learn more.

Score 1 for Health, now in its fifteenth year, is a health promotion anddisease prevention program for elementary-aged children. Since the initial health care screen conducted in 1993 of 750 children, Score One has grown to provide healthcare screens and physician referrals each year for over 12,000 children in grades kindergarten to 5th grade. The partnership spans the entire Kansas City Metropolitan Area, including schools in both Kansas and Missouri. The program focuses on schools where children are more likely to be at high risk for illness and decreased health care access, based on the level of the school's participation in the federal school lunch program. Health screenings are conducted by professional medical, nursing, dental and other allied health students under the direction of clinical faculty from academic medical, dental and nursing centers. Health promotion and disease prevention activities are also conducted. When abnormal physical findings are noted, children may be referred immediately to a health care provider, or they may be re screened. Score 1 staff track referrals and assure that students are seen by a health care provider whenever possible. The program provides clinical training for medical, nursing, dental, and other allied health students that is based on the need for community services that extend beyond practitioner offices, to providing future health care providers with a strong sense of community and the precepts of community health. The experience is interdisciplinary, emphasizing the importance of health care teams in the delivery of high quality health care to the underserved. Click here for more information about the academic partner in the partnership, Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences. Click here for Score 1 for Health's community report.

2007 CCPH Award Recipient

The Institute for Community & Collaborative Health (ICCH), Bronx, NY, USA: With 1.4 million residents, the Bronx is the poorest urban county in the nation. Because of its size and severe poverty, lack of resources relative to its needs, and almost colonial relationship with the citys power centers in Manhattan, the Bronx has developed out of sheer necessity both a culture of cooperation and mosaic of responses. ICCH was established at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1999 to respond to this context by fostering, catalyzing, and supporting community-academic partnerships to improve health, education, and community-engaged research in the Bronx and strengthen public service at the medical school. ICCH has helped launch eight formal community-academic partnerships with its Community Advisory Board and both institutional and grant support.

The community and campus outcomes achieved by this exemplary partnership include providing free primary medical care to over 1,000 uninsured patients annually, eliminating disparities in smoking rates between Bronx whites and Hispanics, providing service-learning opportunities for more than 80% of medical students, increasing recruitment and retention of underrepresented minority medical students and faculty members, and expanding courses and degrees in health disparities and community-based participatory research. For more information, click here.

Click here for the press release announcing the Institute as the 2007 award winner.

2007 CCPH Award Honorable Mentions

The CCT Partnership: Casa Esperanza Inc., Boston University School of Social Works Center for Addictions Research and Services, and Tapestry Health Systems, Boston, MA, USA is a partnership between two Massachusetts community-based organizations and a Boston university-based research center that is based on the joint mission to reduce the rate of substance abuse and the spread of HIV in the Massachusetts Latino community. The partnership is founded on three principles: conducting community based participatory research, promoting program capacity building and promoting BOTH asset and risk assessment. The partnership has spanned seven years; generated substantial resources for HIV prevention and substance abuse services and research; trained more than 25 mental health counselors, substance abuse and outreach workers; trained approximately 20 social work and public health students; and resulted in more than 1,800 Latina/os receiving HIV prevention, testing substance abuse treatment and housing services. For more information, email Lena Lundgren.

The Mantaro Lives Again Partnership for Environmental Health in Peru, St.
Louis, MO, USA and La Oroya and Other Communities in Peru brought together Saint Louis University School of Public Health (a Jesuit institution of higher education in St. Louis, Missouri), the Archdiocese of Huancayo and the Joining Hands Against Hunger network of community and faith-based organizations in Peru. The purpose of the partnership was to respond to the need to obtain scientific evidence of the health impact of the environmental contamination caused by a smelter operated by the U.S.-based Doe Run Company in La Oroya, Peru. The partnership took the responsibility of implementing a scientific study to determine levels of toxic metals in the residents of La Oroya and their homes through a community-based participatory research process. This process was based on shared values and a common mission for advancing the rights to health and a clean environment of La Oroya residents. By combining their resources and strengths, the partners were able to successfully implement the study and demonstrate that international community-campus collaboration can achieve measurable results in building the scientific knowledge base and local capacity for evidence-based decisions to protect the publics health. For more information, click here or email Fernando Serrano.

The Center for Nutrition and Activity Promotion (CNAP), Chico, CA, USA is a collaborative of over 40 university and community organizations working to promote healthy eating and physical activity patterns among northern Californians. It is a California State University, Chico (CSUC) based center providing nutrition and health promotion services to over 300,000 residents in the 12 county CSUC service area. CNAP programs and services are designed to meet the specific needs of the rural, low income residents of northern California, more than 80% of whom are of Hispanic, Hmong, Laotian, or Native American ethnicity. CNAP assists communities in building the infrastructure to meet the nutrition and fitness related health care and educational needs of north state residents. CNAP activities include a variety of community nutrition education and physical activity programs; social marketing campaigns; preK-12 school and district nutrition and activity programs; classes for parents and teachers; and family-based health promotion programs. CNAP provides leadership, experience, diversity, resources, and funding to expand nutrition and activity promotion services while generating the infrastructure necessary to help communities develop, implement, and sustain efforts in northern California. CNAP also trains CSUC students, particularly those from northern California who are more likely to make long-term employment commitments to rural communities. For more information, click here or email Cindy Wolff.

2006 CCPH Award Recipient

The REACH 2010: Charleston and Georgetown Diabetes Coalition is a partnership between the Charleston and Georgetown communities and the Medical University of South Carolina College of Nursing that is eliminating disparities for African Americans with diabetes. Local community groups, health care professionals and people with diabetes identify assets, and implement and evaluate community actions. The partnership includes 16 agencies, neighborhoods, and people with diabetes and covers more than 1600 square miles, with over 12,000 identified African Americans with diabetes. The actions include 1) community-driven education where people live, worship, work, play, and seek health care; 2) evidence-based health systems change; and 3) coalition power built through trust, collaboration, and sound business planning. The health care professionals bring the “science of diabetes” while the community determines how to implement the science and together the Coalition works to eliminate disparities.

The Coalition evaluates progress and plans for each year through community surveys, focus groups, chart audits, minutes of meetings, and epidemiological data. Funding is generated by community fundraising, coalition activities, and a cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Progress in eliminating disparities includes eliminating significant health care disparities in diabetes testing, decreasing emergency room visits, and decreasing amputations in African American men by 50%. The Coalition continues to work on improving diabetes control. For more information click here.

Click here for the press release announcing the Coalition as the 2006 award winner.

2006 CCPH Award Honorable Mentions

Brazos Valley Health Partnership. The Center for Community Health Development (CCHD) conducted a health status assessment in the surrounding seven-county Brazos Valley region in 2002. Funded by two hospital systems, the local health department, the council of governments and the School of Rural Public Health, assessment findings motivated the funders and local health and social service providers to establish the Brazos Valley Health Partnership. With CCHD offering to serve as both a partner and a neutral facilitator, the stakeholders agreed to commit their time and resources to develop a collaborative base from which local and regional efforts to improve community health status could be launched. The new partnership utilized CCHD faculty’s expertise and the CCHD student workforce to not only further identify underlying health status issues but also to engage local communities in working with providers and other partners to
customize successful healthcare solutions that would be unique to each community. CCHD faculty benefits from the increased opportunity to conduct community-based participatory research in their own backyard while students gain immediate hands-on experience in community health development. Since then, BVHP has expanded its network to include four community health partnerships and five health resource centers, trained fifteen students and supported several research projects. For more information, click here.

The Stepping Up Project is a campus-community coalition composed of members of The University of Iowa and Iowa City/Coralville community. They are dedicated to creating recreational and educational programs along with government policies to reduce high-risk drinking and its harmful effects. With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation administered by the American Medical Association, the coalition’s approach is to change the environment and help solve the problem of high-risk drinking, especially among college students, through collaboration and partnerships within The University of Iowa and Iowa City community. For more information, click here.

The Flint Healthcare Employment Opportunities Project was established in 2002 to develop and coordinate local education, training and skill development programs in ways that would simultaneously address employment barriers for low-income Flint and Genesee County residents while helping healthcare employers meet their workforce needs and other significant challenges. The FHEO Project provides sustainable employment and career tracks in the healthcare industry for residents of Flint’s Renewal Community through a comprehensive program that encompasses attitudinal and life skills training, job-skills development, training in healthcare occupations, job placement, and mentoring provided by community-based organizations and academic institutions. The partnership members include three major health systems; two educational institutions; the K-12 school district; the workforce development system; and faith-based and community based organizations that serve Genesee County. Primary funding for the FHEO Project was initially provided by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation with additional funding from the Community Foundation of Greater Flint. For more information, click here.

2005 CCPH Award Recipient

Communities & Physicians Together (CPT) is a partnership that is working together to improve child health by developing active community partnerships to support families in raising healthy children. Employing the principles of the “Asset-Based Community Development” (ABCD) model, CPT teaches pediatric residents how to identify community assets and resources, build partnerships with community collaboratives, and use these partnerships to enhance the capacity to improve child health in each community. The collaboration’s partners include five volunteer community collaboratives in Sacramento & Yuba Counties; the University of California, Davis Department of Pediatrics; the American Academy of Pediatrics Community Access To Child Health (CATCH) program in California; and Sacramento ENRICHES (Engaging Neighborhood Resources for Improving Children’s Health, Education and Safety). Since the establishment of CPT in 1999, 54 pediatric residents have participated in the program addressing numerous issues including obesity prevention, safety education, and health education in immigrant and minority communities. Evaluations of CPT have shown that community leaders value their participation in CPT and view the pediatric residents as assets to the community, while at the same time pediatric residents gain an understanding that working in partnership with communities allows physicians to impact health and fitness in a much broader manner. For more information, click here.

Click here for the press release announcing CPT as the 2005 award winner.

On October 19, 2005, Communities & Physicians Together shared more information about their award-winning partnership on a teleconference call. Click here to access the teleconference audiofile, slides and handouts.

2004 CCPH Award Recipient

The Coalition to Care: The Galveston County Community Health Access Program (GCHAP) is a 24-member coalition that seeks to reduce health disparities and improve access to health care and quality of life for all Galveston County residents. Established to build a strong and diverse partnership among health and social service providers, much of the work of the 2-year-old coalition, located in Galveston County Texas, has focused on the goal to improve access to health care and related services for the indigent population. The coalition's partnership strategies include service learning, community-based participatory research, and establishing a broad-based community partnership organized around a single goal. Partners include citizens of Galveston County; community health centers and hospitals; the public education, health, and safety departments; social services and faith-based organizations; local government; and The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston including an academic teaching hospital, Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. For more information click here.

2004 CCPH Award Honorable Mentions

The North Texas Salud Para Su Corazón Promotora Network Alliance brings together three major entities, the North Texas Promotora Network, the Univeristy of North Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health, and a 30-member network of community-based organizations, to improve the heart health behaviors of the Latino Community of North Texas. The Alliance, in place for three years, is supporting the ability of the promotora network and community health infrastructure to use a participatory community health outreach model to build community capacity and be sustained.

University-Assisted Community Schools, a collaboration of the School District of Philadelphia-West Region, the West Philadelphia Partnership, and the University of Pennsylvania through its Center for Community Partnerships, works to make the local public school a center of education, health and social services, recreation and engagement for students, their parents, and other community members. The program galvanizes the resources of community partners and the University of Pennsylvania to develop K-16+ community problem solving curriculum on issues such as community health, as well as to provide a range of extended day, evening and weekend services and programs for all members of the community, including health-related screenings and health promotion activities. Through the University-Assisted Community School, a comprehensive approach that fully engages all community stakeholders is being developed to address seemingly intractable health needs and disparities such as nutrition and obesity in West Philadelphia. More information can be found on their website by clicking here.

2003 CCPH Award Recipient

The Center for Healthy Communities (CHC) is a community academic partnership dedicated to improving access to and utilization of health care services for the underserved, and improving health professions education. Located in Dayton, Ohio, CHC brings together allied health, medical, nursing, social work and professional psychology higher education training programs with public education, health and housing departments, social services and faith based organizations, local and state government, hospitals and HMOs to better integrate the public health safety net, to better coordinate and utilize existing resources, and to develop additional services as needed. For more information click here.

2003 CCPH Award Honorable Mentions

The Ottawa Inner City Health Project is an innovative approach to meeting the health needs of the chronically homeless in Ottawa. This pilot project was developed through partnerships among the University of Ottawa, shelters for the homeless, municipal government, the Ottawa Hospital, mental health providers, community based health and social services and homeless persons. In addition, the Inner City Health Project is involved in leading community research, service learning, curriculum development, and is piloting a web-based health record, accessible to health care providers wherever the homeless receive assistance. More information can be found on their website by clicking here.

The St. Lawrence County Health Initiative, Inc. was formed through a grass-roots effort to identify and address community health problems focusing on access to care, nutrition and fitness, and substance abuse. The structure of the partnership includes member organizations, a board of directors, task groups and paid staff. The partners include the State University of New York at Potsdam, county government, local businesses and hospitals, community residents and several other higher education institutions and community organizations. More information can be found on their website by clicking here.

2002 Award Recipients

The Morehouse School of Medicine-Southside Atlanta Community Partnership is a 15-year-old coalition that was created by applying the Community Organization and Development for Health Promotion model. The partnership includes other academic institutions, the Southside's Neighborhood Planning Unit Y, constituent neighborhood organizations, adjacent neighborhoods, and local agencies. For more information click here.

The Partnership for Migrant and Seasonal Farm Worker Health in Idaho is a new and growing partnership that draws on the resources and strengths of the entire community and promotes community-building activities, in order to improve the health of migrant and seasonal farm workers in southwest Idaho. The partnership includes Boise State University, several health care agencies, civic service organizations, Idaho Migrant Council, community youth organizations, and more than a dozen local businesses. For more information click here.

Click here to read the article "Catching up with the CCPH 2002 award recipients" on page 11 of the January 24, 2003 issue of CCPH's newsletter Partnership Matters.