About community engagement at SPH Heading link
At the UIC School of Public Health, we believe public health is not an action performed on others. Rather, the most successful interventions are shaped by the knowledge and leadership of communities and people who are most directly impacted by structural determinants of health. Led by SPH’s Collaboratory for Health Justice, our goal is to build and strengthen academic-community partnerships dedicated to advancing health justice.
Transformative praxis: the concept of unity of action and reflection, binding theory and action together as one process. Transformative praxis begins in the stories of everyday life experiences.
Where academia has traditionally benefitted from working in community, the Collaboratory aims to transform research and practice to be by and for community. Community leadership will be centered through community co-instructors and guest speakers while student assignments will be hands-on learning opportunities that meet a concrete need of a community partner. Transforming academia such that those who are most impacted by social determinants of health will have the opportunity to share knowledge, participate in critical learning, and lead public health efforts brings public health back to its roots of being community-driven, inclusive, collaborative, and visionary.
Our mission is to support academic-community partnerships by facilitating the meaningful participation of broad stakeholders; fostering representation and presence in academic settings; and providing training and technical assistance for integrating community engagement across research, teaching and practice.
Collaboratory for Health Justice Heading link
At the center of the School of Public Health’s community engagement efforts is the Collaboratory for Health Justice, dedicated to enhancing reciprocal engagement between the community and UIC faculty, students, and staff. Our emphasis is on connecting people to each other and to resources that will ultimately improve their public health research, teaching, and practice. We strive to advance health justice—that all people would have the power and resources to have agency over their health, which requires addressing systems of oppression such as classism, racism, sexism and xenophobia.
Addressing Structural Violence Heading link
SPH’s Community-Engaged Teaching & Learning (CEnTL) Initiative , through pilot funding from the MacArthur Foundation, is building capacity at the neighborhood level by repurposing academic knowledge, skills, and resources, to directly support community-based organizations, through our classrooms, in order to lead community healing, address structural violence, and strengthen the local public health infrastructure. This work takes place in communities across the globe but is centered in Chicago community areas. The goal of CEnTL is to address the harms and exclusionary practices that academia has historically participated in to transform university systems to be an ally in building power at the community level.
Community Course Alignment
Course assignments are structured so that students work on projects that meet the needs of partners. The Community-Engaged Teaching & Learning (CEnTL) Initiative provides the matching infrastructure, support, and program assessment to ensure high-quality products are shared with community partners. The Collaboratory started and began the MacArthur-funded pilot program from spring 2021 to spring 2024. All future inquiries regarding Community Course Alignment can be directed to CEnTL Project Coordinator at eee2@uic.edu.
Health Justice Speakers Bureau
The Health Justice Speakers Bureau (HJSB) is a cohort of community and practice leaders who have public health expertise and lived/living experience resisting systems of injustice, and who guest-speak in UIC School of Public Health courses. HJSB recognizes that learning from various and diverse kinds of expertise prepares students to better engage with community-based efforts in our shared work towards a healthy, just society. All future inquiries regarding HJSB can be directed to CEnTL Project Coordinator at eee2@uic.edu.
