CWRU’s Population and Community Health Initiative—which aims to eliminate disparities in healthcare and improve health outcomes for the people of Cleveland—will be among the community partners and anchor institutions located at the MidTown Collaboration Center when it opens in early 2025 in the Hough neighborhood.
CWRU School of Medicine Dean and Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs Stanton L. Gerson envisioned and developed the initiative as one that would be both in and of the community. When launched, it will include health education programming for the community—including multi-disciplinary programs for K-12 students—and public health courses for CWRU School of Medicine and graduate students.
Importantly, the Population and Community Health Initiative will create a hub for faculty and researchers from the departments of nutrition, population and quantitative health sciences, medical education and Center for Community Health Integration to collaborate in ways that benefit the community. Though the initiative is led by the School of Medicine, other schools within the university including the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, the School of Law, the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, the College of Arts and Sciences and Weatherhead School of Management also will serve as collaborators.
“There is a lot of excitement in the community about this,” says Elizabeth Fehsenfeld, Chief of Staff at the School of Medicine. “We want to partner with the community on determining what our programming can look like and we want to be a part of creating a vision of the future for young people.”
To that end, on December 15 at 1 p.m., the School of Medicine will host “CWRU @ MidTown,” a community retreat for university and community partners to discuss community engagement strategies and potential programming to be offered by the Population and Community Health Initiative.
When completed, the CWRU space at the MidTown Collaboration Center will house 60 faculty and staff members in a 15,000-square-foot office that will include three classrooms and three conference rooms for CWRU programs and events.
University Hospitals, the Cleveland Institute of Art, Hyland Software, the Economic & Community Development Institute (ECDI), Assembly for the Arts, Black Frog Brewery and Pearl’s Kitchen will join CWRU at the MidTown Collaboration Center, which is currently under construction at the corner of East 66th and Euclid. The goal of the MidTown Collaboration Center is to bring together multiple and diverse partners under one roof to advance community-centered economic development. Learn more about the MidTown Collaboration Center.