Center for Healthy Communities

The CHC serves as a hub for partnerships supporting research, education and outreach to enhance the health of individuals and communities locally, regionally and globally.

The CHC operates under three pillars by providing education, community engagement, and research in support of healthy people in healthy places. Through these pillars, CHC will advance meaningful place-based community health strategies that are holistic, sustainable and just.

The CHC is committed to:

• Building community capacity to support healthy, sustainable environments and healthy behavior choices
• Equipping students with the skills to develop and implement innovative health behavior change programs grounded in science and evidence-based practice
• Supporting transdisciplinary collaboration between PSU’s clusters and community partners
• Ethical principles & practices, including health equity, professionalism, humility, diversity, communication, and community engagement within a social justice framework
• Policy development through application of empirical research findings and evidence-based practice

• Establish an advisory board that is made up of community partners, faculty and students that inform all three pillars at each stage
• Establish a group of affiliate faculty for collaborative research and projects
• Engage students in skill building through coursework, opportunities to conduct research and project implementation
• Provide leadership, consultation, and organizing to community-based efforts to build health for all
• Integrate ethical principles & practices into all CHC efforts
• Secure external funding for Center efforts