The Soldier Health Promotion to Examine and Reduce Health Disparities (SHPERHD) Project was designed to be a partnership between the Institute for Partnerships to Eliminate Health Disparities at the University of South Carolina and the Fort Jackson United States Army Base located in Columbia, South Carolina. SHPERHD Project researchers are studying problems related to obesity and weight management, musculoskeletal injuries and infection, and mental health issues during recruitment, basic training, and post-deployment. In order to successfully develop targeted interventions to prevent and lower the incidence of injury, promote healthy nutrition, and decrease mental health issues, at the same time also reducing disparity gaps, the SHPERHD Project comprises a professional, technical, and administrative staff with specific competence in the operation of a Coordinating Center to handle the wide variety of areas related to military studies. This article discusses the procedures and processes that were implemented in the development of the SHPERHD Project Coordinating Center.
Collaboration between schools of public health and communities is essential to creating healthier communities. Community-Campus Partnerships for Health has established a policy agenda that recognizes the importance of supporting the connection of community engagement with the traditional components of the mission of academic institutions: teaching, research, and service. 1 "Communities" have been defined by Green, Daniel, and Novick as not only localities but also "groups that have a common interest or cause even if they do not share a common location." 2 In this sense, community partners may represent volunteers, agencies, or organizations in the public or private sectors. 2 This view of communities as important collaborators in efforts to improve the public health also is evident in the 2003 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century. 3 The report emphasizes the "intersectorial" nature of the public health system, noting that the governmental public health infrastructure is the "backbone of the public health system" and is complemented by other public health system sectors including the health care delivery system and academic public health. 3 The report calls attention to the importance of communities, the business sector, and the media as potential public health system actors and acknowledges that "individuals, communities, and varied social institutions can form powerful collaborative efforts to improve health that government cannot replicate." 3 Collaboration with communities defined by locality as well as communities defined by common interest is
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