About us

In 2004, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) selected the Center for Community Health Development (CCHD) as one of thirty-three national Prevention Research Centers (PRC). The CCHD was formed to establish a research, education, and experience base for improving population health status in a cost-effective manner. CCHD relies on community health development approaches because they leverage existing resources and have proven to be an effective way for communities to encourage cooperation to meet the health needs of their residents. The Center is contributing to the PRC's national research agenda of community health development and population health status improvement by focusing on rural residents, border residents, and the working poor. The Center also provides invaluable research, education, and training experience for masters and doctoral students of the SRPH, the Texas A&M; Health Science Center, and the larger Texas A&M; University System.

MISSION

There are many common and persistent barriers to community health, including fragmented services and scarce funding. Community health development strategies, however, have proven effective in overcoming these barriers and have succeeded in building community capacity to improve citizens' health. Despite this success, additional research is needed to more fully understand and develop the strategies that are the most effective means for improving population health in a variety of contexts.

With these goals in mind, the Center for Community Health Development's mission is: To work collaboratively with communities and other partners to translate, evaluate, and disseminate effective individual, organizational, community and regional strategies for addressing critical public health and health-related issues in rural and underserved populations. The Center aims to build new infrastructure, to improve existing infrastructure, and to build capacity to conduct prevention research at the Texas A&M; Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health, and in our larger community. CCHD intends to be a resource where community health providers, scholars, students, and community members alike can find information, strategies, and guidelines regarding disease prevention and prevention research, all with the goal of improving the health status of our population.