About the PHH-PRC

What would we like community members to know about the PHH-PRC? As a Prevention Research Center, the PHH-PRC is funded by the U.S. government to do health research, and the research focuses on how to prevent disease, instead of how to treat disease after people are sick.  PRCs also do research about how to promote health and well-being.  Promoting health is a broader idea than preventing diseases.  And the idea of promoting “health and well-being” is broader yet—it includes concerns like having enough to eat and feeling safe from violence where you live.   

The first part of our name—Partners in Health and Housing—says two things about us.  First, we focus on health issues that are important to people who live in public housing.  And second, public housing residents, researchers, and staff of public agencies all work closely as partners.  The formal structure of the PHH-PRC is a four-way partnership (see below).

Together, the four partners design and plan research that will improve the health and well-being of public housing residents, and then they work together to get the research done.  This approach is called community-based participatory research.  This label means two things.  First, our research is about issues that are important to public housing residents.  And second, residents play an active role in every step of the research—from planning it at the beginning to describing the results at the end.

Partners in promoting health and well-being

  • Boston University School of Public Health—Unlike medical researchers, public health researchers focus more on promoting health and well-being than curing diseases, and more on communities than individuals.  They also focus on people who are in greatest need. 
  • Community Committee for Health Promotion—This committee is made up mostly of public housing residents, but also includes community leaders and people from public agencies.  Its purpose is to promote the health and well-being of the residents of Boston’s family housing developments. 
  • Boston Housing Authority—The housing authority is Boston’s biggest landlord.  It provides affordable housing, but beyond that, it also works to create housing that promotes the health and well-being of the people that live there. 
  • Boston Public Health Commission—This agency is Boston’s city health department.  It promotes the health and well-being of all Boston’s residents, especially the city’s most vulnerable residents. 

News You Can Use

The National Campaign for Full Funding for Public Housing in the United States is petitioning members of Congress to include full funding in upcoming legislation. Go to this weblink to find the petition and add your signature: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/
fullfundingforpublichousing/

Recent publications from PHH-PRC investigators:

Scammell et al., “Meeting People Where They Are: Engaging Public Housing Residents for Integrated Pest Management.” Progress in Community Health Partnerships 2011:5(2).

Rorie et al., “Use of a Resident Health Advocate Model to Improve Public Health Van Screening and Follow-Up Among Public Housing Residents” (Prev Chronic Dis 2011; 8(1)).

Douyon et al., “The GirlStars Program: Challenges to Recruitment and Retention in a Physical Activity and Health Education Program for Adolescent Girls Living in Public Housing” (Prev Chronic Dis 2010; 7(2))