Urban Health Collaborative Awards Three Working Group Proposals

The Urban Health Collaborative is pleased to award three proposals for collaborative working groups that will begin this Spring. The projects cover a range of topics and will engage in diverse interdisciplinary and scholarly activities while engaging faculty, trainees and partners to decrease community violence, address maternal and child health and examine migration, ethnicity, and race as determinants of health.

Addressing Urban Community Violence - UHC Community Violence Working Group

The goal of the Community Violence Working Group (CVWG) is to bring together researchers across theUniversity and other key institutions in Philadelphia to develop new ways of understanding and intervening to decrease community violence in urban neighborhoods. A public health framework which considers the underlying causes and social determinants of health is critical to enacting short-term and longer-term interventions to address community violence.

Throughout the course of the year the workgroup will build upon existing relationships with city agencies, community-based organizations, and service providers who focus on violence prevention/intervention efforts and convene these stakeholders using a Human Centered Design Approach. Through a very intentional and iterative process, attendees will help to develop a proposal for a community led research-based intervention to address community violence. The CVWG will also develop a mini symposium series to bring key academic, government and community leaders together to share best practices and better understand how the range of data elements that are held in different systems can be brought together to produce new insights into community violence. Addressing community violence requires that the voices of community members and community leaders have equal standing with the voices of policymakers, researchers, and practitioners to ensure that approaches to addressing community violence are desirable, feasible and viable, and that they take into consideration a long-term perspective.

Led by John A. Rich, MD, MPH, Professor, Department of Health Management and Policy, Dornsife School of Public Health. Co-Founder of “Healing Hurt People” and Co-Director of the Drexel Center for Nonviolence and Justice; Theodore J. Corbin, MD, MPP, Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Department of Emergency Medicine, Drexel University College of Medicine. Co-Founder and Medical Director, “Healing Hurt People”; Amy Carroll-Scott, PhD, MPH Associate Professor, Department of Community Health and Prevention, Dornsife School of Public Health.

Maternal and Child Health Research, Training, & Practice Collaborative (MCHC)

The Maternal and Child Health Research, Training, & Practice Collaborative (MCHC) is a collaboration between Drexel (Urban Health Collaborative (UHC), School of Public Health (DSPH), St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children (SCHC)) and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to support a broader agenda of improving Maternal and Child Health (MCH) outcomes in the City of Philadelphia. This working group will build upon existing relationships between Drexel and CHOP, led by UHC and PolicyLab but inclusive of broader colleagues, and serve our mutual goals of reducing health disparities for women and children, developing research to inform policy and action, and partnering with the City of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH) in achieving these goals.

The MCHC will use data-informed and partner informed approaches to: 1. Develop, strengthen, and formalize relationships between Drexel, PolicyLab, and SCHC by identifying complementary skills, resources, and shared goals to inform a sustainable partnership; 2. Create an MCH training infrastructure between Drexel and CHOP that builds on the DSPH MCH Program and its HRSA MCH Catalyst Grant, 3. Create a shared research agenda to support the MCH faculty at all institutions in collaborative research endeavors that support professional development of MCH academicians and advance the science and methods for urban MCH research; and 4. Determine the feasibility, community interest, and role of a larger, more formalized cross-institutional center for advancing MCH research and training and facilitating partnership with MCH organizations in Philadelphia.

Led by Amy Carroll-Scott, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor, Department of Community Health and Prevention, Dornsife School of Public Health, Co-Lead, Policy & Community Engagement Core, Urban Health Collaborative; Jennifer Kolker, MPH, Associate Dean for Public Health Practice, Clinical Professor, Health Management and Policy, Co-Lead, Policy & Community Engagement Core, Urban Health Collaborative, Dornsife School of Public Health; Meredith Matone, DRPH, MHS, Scientific Director, PolicyLab, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; David Rubin, MD, MSCE Director, PolicyLab, Director, Population Health Innovation, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; Renee Turchi, MD, MPH Professor, Pediatrics and Department of Community Health and Prevention, Dornsife School of Public Health, Chair of Pediatrics, Drexel University College of Medicine, St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children.

Migration, Ethnicity, Race, and Health Working Group (MERHG)

The Migration, Ethnicity, Race, and Health Working Group (MERHG) is a group of Dornsife School of Public Health (DSPH) researchers and graduate students interested in the role that migration, ethnicity, and race play as determinants of health and in developing and evaluating programs and policies to promote the health of immigrants and ethnic/racial minorities, particularly in urban settings. Representing the four DSPH departments, the group will advance the study of Migration, Ethnicity, Race and Health (MERH) and focus on public health issues affecting immigrant, ethnic, and racial minorities.

The group will collaborate on research projects and publications focused on the health of immigrants and racial/ethnic minorities, mentor junior faculty and graduate students interested in MERH, host monthly colloquia and bring together leading scholars in the area to present, and partner with community organizations who serve immigrant, ethnic, and racial minority communities in Philadelphia, the U.S., and Latin America. Findings from the group’s research will be used to catalyze the formation of a Latino Health Coalition in Philadelphia focused on the health of this growing segment of the city’s population. Long-term, the group hopes to evolve into a Center on Migration, Ethnicity, Race and Health (C-MERH). The working group funding provides momentum for activities, strengthen collaborations, and set a strong foundation for a future C-MERH.

Led by Ana P. Martinez-Donate Associate Professor, Department of Community Health and Prevention, Dornsife School of Public Health; Félice Lê-Scherban, Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics; Dornsife School of Public Health, Brent Langellier Assistant Professor, Department of Health Management and Policy, Dornsife School of Public Health; Jessie Kemmick Pintor, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Management and Policy; Tran Huynh, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health