Community Health Score

Active Project? No
Year Project Began: 2012
Year of Last Input: 2015
Last Updated: Jul 31 2017
Project Location:
Kent County, Michigan
State / Province:
Michigan
Country:
United States
Lead Organization:
Grand Valley State University
Type of Organization:
Unknown

Geographic Scope

Neighborhood, Other

Issue Areas

Equity, Health & Wellbeing, Poverty

Description

In the fall 2012 semester, the students of Political Science 310—Health Policy at Grand Valley State University (GVSU), Allendale, Michigan, set out to think about the overall health of their community in Kent County. As a researcher and associate professor in the School of Public, Nonprofit and Health Administration, Stephen Borders,
PhD, recognized the need to prepare students upon graduation for complex challenges like a community assessment.

Borders therefore redesigned this upper-level course to focus on the application of problem solving by guiding students in the creation of knowledge and skills. These changes culminated in the creation of Community Health
Score (www.communityhealthscore.org)—a collaborative student effort that analyzes and ranks the health status of each of Kent County’s 128 census tracts.

Project URL

http://www.communityhealthscore.org

Project Contact:

Stephen Borders
Grand Valley State University - Educational Organization
borderss@gvsu.edu
Grand Rapids MI USA