Groundbreaking took place last week for the Cleveland Foundation’s multi-use Midtown Collaboration Center, which will house the Case Western Reserve University Population and Community Health Initiative (PCHI). Scheduled to open in late 2024. The 95,000-square-foot mixed-use facility at the corner of E. 66th Street and Euclid Avenue will serve as an innovation-focused community center connecting Clevelanders to resources featuring research and training centers, a media lab, an innovation hall, community organizations, restaurants and music venues.
The new center is a significant investment in the Hough neighborhood. Collaboration between community leaders, clinicians, researchers and educators linking expertise in medicine to benefit the community creates a unique opportunity to transform the health of those living in the area.
As one of the School of Medicine’s top strategic priorities, the goal of the PCHI is threefold—to partner with residents to address social determinants of health, to advance community-engaged research and education to improve whole person health and to advance the next generation of health and wellness to increase the quality of people’s lives.
“Relocating faculty and students to the Midtown extension of the School of Medicine population health education and community research programs is an exceptional opportunity to help understand and improve the social determinants of health for the residents of Cleveland,” said Dean of the School of Medicine Stan Gerson. “ It is a top priority for the school, the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center and its partners across the city.”
PCHI is a consortium of academic, research and community-based projects, including those from the Departments of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences and Nutrition and the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, as well as new collaborative programs and projects from the university’s Mandel School, School of Law and College of Arts and Sciences.
Medical and physician assistant students will actively participate in the initiative through current pathways programs (Urban Health, Addiction Medicine, Wellness/Prevention) and Kowal Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health longitudinal geriatrics program with senior centers and by leading community health education and screening programs.
In addition to Case Western Reserve University, partners in the Midtown Collaboration Center include:
- JumpStart Headquarters
- University Hospitals
- Cleveland Institute of Art
- Hyland Software
- Economic & Community Development Institute
- Assembly for the Arts
- Black Frog Brewery
- Pearl’s Kitchen
- Innovation Hall and music venue