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 Community
Health Promotion
Representative: Pamela D. Connor, Ph.D.
As independent investigators and through collaborative efforts with other
university faculty, health professionals, and area agencies, members of
the Department of Preventive Medicine work on varied projects to promote
community health. Areas of special interest include maternal and child
health, physical activity promotion, tobacco control, youth violence,
violence against women, and community safety. For example, department
members are involved with projects such as these:
| • PANDA--Providing
design consultation, psychosocial assessment and program evaluation
of a faith-based prenatal home-visitation study emphasizing maternal
health behaviors, violence prevention, and prenatal care to improve
pregnancy outcomes in socially disadvantaged women. |
| • SPARK--Providing
program consultation and evaluation of a physical activity promotion
program in Memphis City Schools. |
| • SACSI--Strategic
Approaches to Community Safety--Providing evaluation and
statistical consultation for a collaborative research initiative with
the U.S. Attorney's office and the University of Memphis. |
| • Healthy
Start--Providing evaluation of a Memphis and Shelby County
Health Department program for community-based case management/home-visitation
program for high-risk pregnant women. |
| • UTHSC-PreTrial
Data System--UT developed this DV data system in cooperation
with Shelby County Pretrial Services office. Recognized benefits of
these local surveillance data were better understanding of the context
and predictors of domestic violence, location of occurrences, information
to introduce policy and intervention initiatives, and baselines to
judge improvements in our community responses. |
| • Domestic
Violence Assessment Center (DVAC)--The DVAC is currently
housed at the Exchange Club Family Center. The DVAC collects information
from court-referenced domestic violence perpetrators, using validated
risk assessments to predict violence propensity. The purpose of this
data system is to house batterer records in a centralized database
and to improve the access of this information by victim advocates,
law enforcement agencies, criminal justice agencies, and prevention
professionals. |
| • Community
Phone Survey--The purpose of this study was to (1) determine
the prevalence of domestic violence (DV) in faith communities; (2)
assess faith members' attitudes towards DV intervention programs in
faith communities; (3) assess faith members' awareness of DV in their
community and the general population; and (4) assess children’s
exposure to violence. Collected information includes the following:
demographics; gender-related attitudes of DV; religiosity; relationship
data; general attitudes toward DV; physical, threat, and stalking
victimization; violence in relationships; general health questions;
emotional stressors; religious problem solving/acceptance; and social
network support. |
| • Community
Institute for Early Childhood (CIEC)--The CIEC is a partnership
of government and private sector leaders in the greater Memphis area.
Key objectives completed by the organization include the development
of a web-based directory, identification of best practice intervention
models, and development of an infrastructure and process to guide
a community response to early childhood needs. |
| • Shelby
Alliance of Faith-Based Efforts Against Sexual Assault (SAFE)--The
purpose of this study was to disseminate information to faith-based
organizations in the greater Memphis area regarding problems associated
with sexual assault. The project also collected interview data with
key religious leaders and developed a user-friendly manual on sexual-assault
prevention for congregational use. |
| • Coordinated
Community Response to Domestic Violence (CCRDV)/ Domestic Violence
Council (DVC): The purpose of this initiative originated
from an identified need to create a foundation on which to build a
comprehensive, inclusive, systematic, and strategic approach to domestic
violence (DV) through multi-agency collaboration and coordination
of existing related services. The Shelby County Domestic Violence
Council (DVC) identifies this initiative as an integral component
in strengthening the focus and growth of community-wide DV collaborative
efforts and as a foundation on which to rejuvenate collective interest
and participation. This recognition has led to integration of the
CCRDV initiative processes and outcomes as cornerstones in the organizational
infrastructure of the DVC. |
| • Forensic
Nursing Grant: The University of Tennessee College of Nursing
will implement a comprehensive Master's level and post-Master's level
Forensic Nursing curricular program, which emphasizes multidisciplinary
injury intervention and prevention across the lifespan at primary,
secondary, and tertiary levels using advanced nursing theories, cultural
competency, forensic science, criminal justice, criminology, and law,
with a focus on those populations who experience the greatest risk.
The Department of Preventive Medicine will provide a program evaluation
for this project. |
| • President’s
Family Justice Center Initiative Grant: The Department of
Preventive Medicine, in conjunction with the Shelby County Crime Commission
and the Center for Community Criminology and Research, would be responsible
for the evaluation of the proposed project entitled the "President's
Family Justice Center Initiative," which envisions co-locating
personnel from several DV organizations into one geographic location.
It would include groups providing victim advocacy and counseling services,
law-enforcement domestic-violence investigative units, District Attorney's
DV prosecutorial staff, Citizens' Dispute staff, civil legal services
and any other type of services related to victims of domestic violence.
It also envisions links to medical and mental health services and
possibly limited medical services at the center. |
| • AGAPE:
The Department of Preventive Medicine has partnered with Agape Child
and Family Services in their proposed project to offer marriage enrichment/enhancement
services to all couples adopting children through the Tennessee Department
of Children’s Services (DCS). Agape, in partnership with Catholic
Charities, and Harmony Adoptions, was recently awarded funding to
provide statewide adoption services for all children served by DCS.
Our responsibility will be to provide project evaluation and carry
out a longitudinal study on the effectiveness of the proposed program. |
| • Porter
Leath: The UT Department of Preventive Medicine is currently
conducting an evaluation of an LHS-funded early childhood program
at Porter-Leath that includes home visitation and early childhood
literacy activities. |
Diversity of training in statistics, research methodology,
measurement and epidemiology allows faculty to offer applied technical
assistance to researchers and community nonprofit agencies in the following
ways:
- Needs Assessments--Determining the service needs
of a community, organization, or group of individuals;
- Intervention Development--Finding the "best
practice" solution to problems and challenges;
- Program Evaluation--Helping groups and agencies to
find out what programs work, which programs don't work, and how to improve
existing programs;
- Data Management, Analysis, and Interpretation--Using
state-of-the-art software and innovative techniques to manage large
amounts of data, integrate data systems, and interpret results;
- Strategic Planning--Assisting agencies in synthesizing
and analyzing existing data and providing advice for consensus and planning.
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