Building Healthy Communities

Initiatives

• Center for Research on Health Disparities

  The Center for Research on Health Disparities (CRHD) provides leadership for advancing comprehensive, culturally sensitive, community-based, participatory research that improves health outcomes and enhances quality of life, with a special focus on rural, Appalachian, vulnerable, diverse and underserved communities. The center links faculty, students and community members to advance research on the complex causes of health disparities and the strategies needed to mitigate disparities and expand health equity. CRHD research and scholarship enterprises promote quality of life and well-being for individuals, families and communities, encompassing a lifespan and developmental approach, with results translated back to the community.

  Center for Research on Health Disparities

• Clemson Food and Nutrition Security Initiative

  Our college is committed to working in and with communities in rural South Carolina to address poverty, economic development and hunger. Through a collaborative, cross-college initiative, CBSHS is taking the lead on food systems projects that address food and nutrition security and rural economic development through community-based partnerships in the 46 counties. Projects include partnership with the United Way of Pickens County, Food Access Map, CDC Obesity Prevention Project, and BlueCross BlueShield South Carolina Foundation.

  South Carolina Food Access Map

  In 2020 the College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences’ Land Grant Local program created a Food Access Map as part of its efforts to aid Upstate residents in ten counties facing food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The map included information on organizations and the type of assistance they provide as well as operating hours and availability. The Land-Grant Local team worked with the United Way of Pickens County, the nonprofit organization Ten at the Top, and Clemson’s Joseph F. Sullivan Center interdisciplinary health center on the project, to provide information on different food resources across the Upstate. Now, in 2022, the map has been updated to include partners and agencies across all the 46 counties in South Carolina through a grant with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) Office of Environmental Affairs. Clemson Students have worked to verify and update information on over 882 food pantries and food resources, as well as locations and contact information for Department of Social Services, SCDHEC Offices, and United Way locations for all 46 counties.

  

• Clemson Rural Health

  Clemson Rural Health is the organizing framework for Clemson’s health service delivery and prevention efforts statewide. Housed in the College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences (CBSHS), 
  Clemson Rural Health includes the Joseph F. Sullivan Center (JFSC), Clemson Health Clinic – Walhalla, our mobile health van fleet, our at-risk community COVID-19 screening teams, our collaborative projects with the Clemson-MUSC Healthy Me – Healthy SC Alliance, the Department of Public Health Sciences (PHS), the School of Nursing, CU Center for Research on Health Disparities, and community development projects led by the Dean and faculty across CBSHS. Key activities include:

  Clemson Rural Health

• Institute for Engaged Aging

  CBSHS, in partnership with Prisma Health Oconee Memorial Hospital (OMH), has opened a center to address critical needs for the aging population in the Upstate and the state of South Carolina. With the hiring of the SmartLIFE Endowed Professor in Aging and Cognition, the Institute for Engaged Aging at OMH provides clinical opportunities for Clemson University students and faculty to examine aging related to mobility and physical functioning. In addition, research laboratories from multiple disciplines are housed at the center. We anticipate the Institute for Engaged Aging will be a leading research and programmatic hub for cutting-edge dissemination for excellence in aging studies.

  Institute for Engaged Aging

• CBSHS Land-Grant Local Food Systems Solutions

  CBSHS Land-Grant Local Food Systems Solutions works to enhance economic, social and health outcomes in South Carolina through local food systems development and local sourcing of farm and food products into Clemson University in partnership with Aramark Campus Dining. CBSHS is developing curriculum and research centered on local food systems that stress solutions for food and nutrition insecurity and hunger across the state through the social determinants of health. Improving access to local foods has an immediate effect on health and helps to stimulate the South Carolina economy and build relationships across communities.  Land-Grant Local further positions CBSHS as a 21st-century, land-grant college dedicated to teaching, research, and service to the state of South Carolina. The annual FoodForward research symposium is a premier Land Grant Local program that highlights the work of research and extension throughout the university.

   

  FoodFORWARD

  One of the key initiatives of Land-Grant Local is the FoodFORWARD Research Symposium, hosted jointly by the College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences and the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences, and The Watt Center. Started in spring 2019, the symposium brings together Clemson food researchers, staff, and extension members for campus-wide collaboration. Researchers from areas such as food systems, food safety, food packaging, food production, food anthropology, food insecurity, and food communication come together for poster presentations and talks from experts in food research.

• Farmer Support Resource Map

  

  View Map

  This interactive map by the Southern Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network Project (Seeman / Robinson / Hossfeld) is intended to be a resource for partners and researchers of the Farmer Rancher Stress & Suicide Prevention Network (FRSAN). It provides locations and details on many different resources to help relieve stress related to health care issues, financial struggles, and many others. 

• Race, Ethnicity, Youth and Social Equity Collaboratory

  The Race, Ethnicity, Youth and Social Equity (REYSE) Collaboratory conducts systematic and community-engaged research designed to explore, create and share knowledge that contributes to understanding how social inequalities and social injustices may influence the development of racialized and ethnitized youth populations. Led by faculty members in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management, the lab works with students, educators, community members, scholars, policymakers, organizations and the media to ensure its resources are accessible to all, in order to make practical, usable connections between research, outcomes, policies and best practices. The lab has four key priorities: advancing knowledge, sharing progress, collaborating with communities, and creating dialogue.

  REYSE Collaboratory

• SDOH Persistent Poverty Initiative

  

  Poverty rates in the South have always been higher than any other region in the United States. There are 353 persistent poverty counties in the United States, 301 of these are rural and 84% of these are in the South. South Carolina has 12 counties of persistent poverty.  Persistent Poverty is a USDA definition that captures the dimension of time.  Counties that are defined as persistent poverty have poverty rates that are over 20% in each Census over a 40-year period.

  This initiative provides a mechanism, a charge, and a space in which we address the critical issues facing persistent poverty in South Carolina through examining and addressing the social determinants of health. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention defines the social determinants of health as the “conditions in the places where people live, learn, work, and play that affect a wide range of health and quality-of-life-risks and outcomes.”  These include, healthcare access and quality; education access and quality; social and community context; economic stability; neighborhood and built environment.

  The CBSHS Social Determinants of Health in Persistent Poverty Counties Initiative brings together researchers, students, practitioners, and community partners to create a learning community that shares and identifies key projects aimed to alleviate poverty in persistently poor regions through research and praxis.

• Public Opinion Research/Outreach

  The Social Media Listening Center helps organizations gauge and share information about important social and political happenings. The center partnered with the Department of Political Science to release the Clemson University Palmetto Poll – which researched public opinion about the South Carolina presidential primaries and COVID-19 – and they assisted the South Carolina Emergency Management Division during Hurricane Florence and Clemson’s Emergency Operations Center during the pandemic.

  Social Media Listening Center

• Youth Development Programs

  Youth Development Programs is an academic area within the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management offering Certificate and Master’s Degree programs in Youth Development Leadership for mid-to-upper level youth development professionals. Courses in these interdisciplinary programs are delivered online to better meet the needs of working professionals while also providing dynamic faculty and student engagement through a cohort model and real-time weekly meetings between students and faculty. Students gain the competencies, knowledge and skills to help young people develop into healthy, competent, coping and contributing citizens. A minor in Youth Development Programs is also available to support the needs of undergraduate students whose career will intersect with the youth development field.

  Youth Development Leadership