Virtual Coordination Hub
As the only academic healthcare university in the region, we have a responsibility to leverage and align the expertise of the university with strengths of the community to address issues related to the health and well-being of our region. The Community Health Pathway serves as a crossing point between the University of Cincinnati and the community to help build health solutions and build a diverse workforce that will improve the lives of Cincinnati residents. We work across the university to advance the health and well-being of our community in the Great Cincinnati region through funding opportunities, programs, and events that is designed to facilitate community collaboration and partnership.
Vision
To improve the health of our community.
Mission
Utilizing the tripartite missions of education, research, and clinical care to leverage the resources of the University of Cincinnati to lower the cancer burden and improve the health of our community.
Impact
- Enhancement of the public health workforce
- Grow research profile in cancer in quest toward NCI designation
- Enhance cancer care in the community
- Close health gap in the community
Our Focus Areas
As urban living becomes the predominant influence for most of the world’s population, the health of individuals is impacted at every stage of life by environmental, social, cultural, and economic factors. Like many other cities, the city of Cincinnati is faced with many health challenges across its fifty-two neighborhoods. The Community Health Pathway focuses on the unique health challenges and conditions associated with urban life.
Community Health:
Community health engagement is a shared leadership between the Community Health Pathway and the community. Our community is central to ensure a positive impact on the health and well-being of our residents. Through social mobilization, health education and promotion, community-engaged research, and intervention, we are able to address the social determinants of health and begin to address health inequities in our community.
Mental Health:
We are dedicated to improving the emotional psychological and social well-being on campus and in our urban community by strengthening our community-academic partnerships, addressing systems issues, addressing cultural competence and trauma-informed care, and reducing the mental health stigma.
Healthcare Workforce Diversity and Cultural Intelligence:
There is a persistent lack of diversity in the healthcare profession. It is critical to ensure that people from all socioeconomic background, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation are represented in healthcare. Cultural competency ensures that we effectively deliver healthcare services that meet the social, cultural, and linguistic needs of patients. A diverse and culturally competent healthcare workforce can help improve health outcomes and quality of care as well as reduce health disparities.
Addiction Science:
Addiction science spans the study of all addictive behaviors, substance use and nonsubstance use, such as opioids, marijuana, tobacco, gambling, and gaming. By aligning interdisciplinary experts, we are able to support collaborative research that accelerates scientific advances, provide evidence-based practices, and optimize outcomes for our community.
What We Do
The Community Health Pathway of Next Lives Here Seed Grant Program is designed to support investigators in collecting preliminary data in new or innovative research that will be leveraged for extramural grant applications. While this proposal is to be submitted by a UC faculty and/or staff, we encourage community collaboration. Seed Money Grants ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 in value will be evaluated and selected by the Community Health Pathway Steering Committee.
Our action summits create an opportunity for UC faculty, staff, and students to engage community stakeholders to identify priorities and inequities in our core area, and identify potential academic-community research opportunities. These events allow us to build a trusting and reciprocal relationship with our community partners and to improve the health and well-being of our urban residents.
The Opioid Action Summit and the Mental Health Action Summit are two events held every year that include UC’s faculty, staff, and students as well as community leaders, agencies, organizations, and members to identify issues and gaps, and help build and co-create solutions through research and evidence-based practice. Objectives include:
1. Creating a platform for open dialogue to address the most pressing needs and gaps in our community.
2. Inviting researchers and practitioners to share evidence-based findings and strategies that can enhance the health and well-being of the community.
3. Highlighting key research findings from our seed grant program.
4. Identifying priorities for Cincinnati over the next year.
5. Continuing to strengthen the relationships and build new ones between the University of Cincinnati and community.
We are driven by a common purpose to have a positive impact on the health and well-being of those in our community. Our UC experts, community partnerships, and external organizations are crucial to the success of our work in the community.
The coordination hub is a repository of community health research and other activities, events, initiatives, and grant applications. Community Health webpage is currently being created where you can find all the CH activities.
Helpful Resources
Community Partners:
- 1n5
- Booker T. Washing YMCA
- Cincinnati Children’s Hospital & Medical Center
- Council on Aging
- Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services
- Health Collaborative
- House of Joy
- Latinos Unidos
- Melodic Connection
- New Vision UMC
- St. Mark
- St. Vincent De Paul
- UC Health
- UC Health Stress Center
- West End Community Research Advisory Board (CRAB)
- York St. UMC
External Organizations:
- American Council on Education
- Cincinnati State Technical & Community College
- Rochester Institute of Technology
- St. Catherine University Collaborative
- Sorenson Communication
- Live Well Collaborative