With Funding Ending, UM-Flint to Join with Partners to Keep Needed Health Programs

The Prevention Center (PRC) of Michigan will celebrate more than 20 years of partnership that has focused on reducing health disparities and promoting health equity through multiple projects which have benefited Flint community residents. Funding for the programs officially ended in late September.

The PRC has been funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) since 1998 and includes the University of Michigan Ann Arbor School of Public Health, UM-Flint Department of Public Health and Health Sciences, the Genesee County Health Department, the Greater Flint Health Coalition, and many community non-profit organizations such as GCAARD, the Health Awareness Center, Your Center, Flint/Genesee County Neighborhood Roundtable, Dort Oak Park Neighborhood House, among others.

"Over the years this partnership has focused on reducing health disparities and promoting health equity through multiple projects which have benefited Flint community residents," said Suzanne Selig, director of UM-Flint's Department of Public Health and Health Sciences. "These projects have included the Youth Violence Prevention Center, the Speak to Your Health Survey, the HOPE project which focuses on HIV/AIDS among the African American community and many other efforts to promote healthy outcomes for infants and to reduce racism."

A special event will be held on Monday, December 8th from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. in UM-Flint's Northbank Center Park Place room that will showcase successes of the partnership along with plans for the future.

Over the last 20 years, the partnership has created long lasting and indelible professional relationships which have served as the foundation for many other successful efforts, including the recent $1 million Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation (BCJI) Program grant. It has provided the University of Michigan School of Public Health with a "home" in the Flint community and has enhanced its partnership with the UM-Flint campus.

Despite the end of funding for the programs, Selig believes that the partnerships created over the years will continue and other funding sources will be sought to continue important community programs. The successes of the partnership has not gone unnoticed. It has been viewed as a model for partnerships throughout the country and  giving rise to a National Community Committee which has been a community voice for the Prevention Research Centers nationwide.

PHOTO: Suzanne Selig, director of UM-Flint's Department of Public Health and Health Sciences