Georgia College & State University’s Center for Health and Social Issues reaches beyond Baldwin County to impact areas around Georgia.
The Center for Health and Social Issues was created around 2008 by former Dean Dr. Pamela Levi of the College of Health Sciences. In its earlier days, the center’s work focused on chronic illnesses and physical activity. Most well-known, the center created Live Healthy Baldwin. At the time, Live Healthy Baldwin was created to decrease childhood obesity through physical activity and healthy dieting. It led to the creation of bike lanes in the county, collaborations to help educate students in school on healthy eating and the promotions of farmers markets.
“Live Healthy Baldwin remains a program but there is no active project right now,” said Dr. Damian Francis, director of the Center for Health and Social Issues. “So, we now do health promotion activities under the umbrella of Live Healthy Baldwin.”
In the present, the center’s mission has shifted to be more community based and has extended beyond the reaches of Baldwin County. The five current areas of collaboration are Baldwin County, Oconee Heights, Coopers, Hardwick and Harrisburg. In these communities, the center works with partners to provide health care services, screenings, educational opportunities and be proactive in preventing chronic illnesses. The center’s current focus areas are on obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental health, cancer and healthcare access.
“We are trying to be proactive as opposed to reactive by doing programs that would not only be on the curative side but also on the preventative side in terms of preventing chronic, non-communicable diseases,” said Francis.
One example of a current program in the Harrisburg community is an educational program allocated to the health calendar. Each month, the center works to reflect and educate the community on a health issue highlighted for that month. During each month, the center promotes preventative approaches while also providing routine screenings in the form of blood pressure checks, diabetic screenings and more.
“It’s my personal passion to see how much inroads we can make as a center in mitigating against inequities in health, and inequities in social issues,” explained Francis. “By social issues I mean opportunities for education and by inequities in health, I mean access to healthcare, access to routine health checks, racial inequities and more.”
One step the center is making towards this goal is working with Baldwin County and the Harrisburg Community Collaborative to secure federal funding for a library and multipurpose center at the Collins P Lee Community Center. This center will give the community access to computers and information available online along with other services.
“I believe our work has given people the opportunity to use their voice. This is the beginning of a health revolution where people can feel and be heard. That is 50 percent of the battle,” said Francis. “Our relationships with the county commissioners and city officials have gone a long way in terms of shaping policy, or at least preparing a pathway for people to interact with policymakers.”
As the Center of Health and Social Issues continues to create community collaboratives, community members will be given opportunities to not just voice complaints but solutions to decision- makers. For example, the center and the community of Oconee Heights are working with multiple partners and stakeholders, like Georgia Power, to educate, inform and find a solution for safety concerns that the community has proposed.
“One of the things you learn quickly in social epidemiology is that to initiate change, the community must feel a part of the decision-making process,” said Francis. “Our community-based research works with the community to connect the dots between problem and solution.”
According to Francis, community empowerment and participatory research are the key to change. The two actions coincide with one another to help empower the work they strive to complete.
“We’ve provided ourselves as vehicles for community engagement, not only for students and volunteers, but also for corporate society,” said Francis.
To get involved with the Center of Health and Social Issues, donations can be made to the center, students at Georgia College may volunteer through on-campus programs, or the community may contribute to the center during GC Gives Day. The Baldwin County community may also participate in two campus associated events, the annual Breast Cancer Awareness walk, or Dunk for Diabetes held at Georgia College. To learn more about the center, visit https://www. gcsu.edu/chsi.