Our Work
The goal of CEED@Chicago is to prevent and reduce the burden of diabetes and CVD among the Hispanic/Latino and African American populations in Chicago . Starting with five target communities, CEED@Chicago will extend its work to the metropolitan area, the Midwest region and eventually the United States .
To fulfill its goal, CEED@Chicago has identified three main objectives:
• To build and sustain a Coalition of multi-sector organizations dedicated to changing the social determinants affecting the health status of minority communities;
• To increase the capacity of member organizations by providing training and technical assistance in the areas that will support the policy changes addressing the social determinants of health;
• To become a clearinghouse and resource center to those organizations dedicated to the elimination of disparities.
CEED@Chicago was established to be a resource for mentoring communities in processes of:
• community mobilization
• community-based participatory research
• program development and evaluation
This CEED@Chicago Coalition is the organization and mobilization effort that puts forth these mentoring programs in order to prevent and reduce the burden of diabetes and CVD.
The CEED@Chicago Coalition is a growing alliance of community-based organizations, coalitions, businesses, institutions, and individuals who are dedicated to improving the health of the Hispanic/Latino and African American communities. The Coalition comes together to simultaneously promote health in the community and catalyze systemic transformations through policy change.
The CEED@Chicago Coalition follows a participatory and empowerment approach, involving multiple public and private sector agencies in outlining the Action Plan that will serve their communities. Although private-sector agencies are not traditionally involved in public health policies and interventions to improve community health, as members of the CEED@Chicago Coalition, they will participate in identifying the policy changes they believe will lead to reducing CVD and diabetes.
The Coalition and partnership-building efforts are led by the Community Engagement Committee . This committee identifies and engages other organizations of function and value that would benefit and bring contributions to CEED@Chicago, its coalition, and the community at large. The Coalition meetings are open to the public and occur quarterly. Potential members and interested individuals may contact Charles Williams, cwilli54@uic.edu for more information.
The current efforts of the CEED@Chicago Coalition are focused on changing policies in areas that ultimately impact CVD and diabetes in our target communities. In particular, CEED@Chicago seeks to influence policy changes in:
- Health Literacy, peer dissemination and community- based health education, and
- Equity and Food Distribution, an assessment of stores and the education of store owners to reduce food inequality and bolster support for healthy eating habits.
Support to CEED@Chicago Coalition Members
CEED@Chicago offers a support network to disseminate information and share resources enhancing the capacity of its Coalition members in addressing disparities in diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Besides leveraging local resources, this network promotes and organizes trainings and provides technical assistance. Primarily, these support functions are led by the Training & Technical Assistance Committee .
At the first Coalition meeting, a survey was distributed to query members on what information and what type of trainings they desired. CEED@Chicago then processed the information and looked within the Coalition to determine where members could support each other. From there, decisions were made as to what information would need to be leveraged, researched, and worked into training seminars.
CEED@Chicago provides two main support structures for the Coalition to draw from:
- The clearinghouse of information, and
- A directory of training and education that functions both internally and externally to the public.
The 2009 training and education programs consist of the Best Practices in Community Health Workshops and the Grassroots Community Health Leadership Program .
CEED@Chicago collects information, publications, media, and other resources about the prevention and reduction of diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) which it disseminates to the public. It focuses primarily on bringing together research findings, developing and translating curricula, and building communities of practice with the purpose of addressing disparities. The information is directed to communities of interest in the Chicago region, the Midwest, and across the U.S. , including REACH US Action Communities and the recipients of Legacy Project awards. CEED@Chicago brings together the expertise of core Midwest Latino Health Research, Training and Policy Center and Healthy Cities Collaborative staff as well as University of Illinois Medical Center faculty, and Chicago Department of Public Health staff.