School of Rural Public Health Outreach Highlights

Active for Life!

Active for Life! has been established to fund projects seeking to deliver research-based physical activity programs to large numbers of midlife and older adults through existing community institutions such as community or senior centers, recreation centers, public health departments, housing authorities and religious institutions.

Health in the Dominican Republic

School of Rural Public Health students Julie Parrish and Caesar Ricci spent Summer 2003 working in the Dominican Republic as part of the L.T. Jordan Institute for International Awareness International Service Program. Activities such as conducting door-to-door health interviews for the implementation of a new social security system; teaching health sessions to a women's development group; and conducting surveys on teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and contraceptive use filled their time.

Community Health

Last year, the Brazos Valley Council of Governments, along with the Central Texas Area HIV/AIDS Planning Council, contracted with the Community Health Development Program at the School of Rural Public Health to complete a Continuum of Care report. The report examines the current and desired services available to individuals living with HIV in Austin, Bryan-College Station, San Angelo, Temple-Killeen and Waco.

Screening Children for Diabetes

The College of Medicine, the School of Rural Public Health and Scott & White are conducting a joint study looking at methods of identifying children at high risk for diabetes at the South Texas Center in McAllen. This project is targeting participants in Head Start Programs in rural communities in Hidalgo County to determine whether the Head Start Program is a logical place to screen for Type 2 diabetes and intervene to prevent or delay onset of the disease in high-risk individuals.

Center for Community Health Development

Established in 2001, and subsequently designated as a Regents approved Center in 2005, The Center for Community Health Development (CCHD) is a CDC-funded Prevention Research Center that supports prevention research and training on methods for improving population health status. Building upon community-based participatory research methods and a strategy of community health development, CCHD goal is to help increase local communities’ capacity to meet the health needs of their residents.  Thus the Center works with local community organizations through the Brazos Valley Health Partnership to address specific community health issues, such as diabetes self-management and the prevention of obesity. Through its systematic examination and evaluation of community health development strategies, the CCHD will contribute to the national research agenda related to population health status improvement, with specific focus on minorities, rural and border residents, and the working poor emphasizing the translation and dissemination of established prevention strategies.

PI: Kenneth McLeroy, PhD
Director: James Burdine, DrPH
Assistant Director: Monica Wendel, MA, MPH
Organizational Location: HSC
BOR Approved Center May 26, 2005
Phone: 979/ 458-0937
Link to Center website

Prevention Research Center (PRC)

The HSC-School of Rural Public Health (SRPH) was designated a PRC by the Centers for Disease Control due to SRPH's work at the Center for Community Health Development.

• Build research teams of multidisciplinary faculty
• Seek outcomes applicable to public health program and policies
• Create research networks for priority health issues, such as healthy aging and cancer prevention & control
• Build long-term relationships for engaging communities as partners in research
• Conduct research in directions guided by advisory boards of community leaders
• Develop public health researchers' skills for working with communities
• Conduct additional research funded by other federal agencies, foundations, and nonprofit organizations