Foundations of Community Health

Program Overview

Course 1: Social and Environmental Factors that Affect Health

This course explores how the conditions in which people live, learn, work, and play interact to shape patterns of health and disease across communities. After a thorough introduction to five main categories of the social and environmental factors of health, students will examine each factor, discuss how it affects overall health outcomes, and identify tools to address each factor.

Course 2: Rural Health Dynamics

This course explores the unique character of rural communities, highlighting both their strengths such as close-knit social networks and resilience and the challenges that set them apart from urban areas. It examines how factors like geographic isolation, limited infrastructure, and reduced access to services shape health and well-being and contribute to differences in outcomes.

Course 3: Health Policy and Financing

This course provides an overview of the key factors that influence how health care policy is developed and financed in the United States (U.S.). It is designed to help learners identify major stakeholders, understand important historical influences on health policy, and develop the skills to critically analyze how policies and financing decisions affect different populations across the country. In this course we will highlight the ways in which healthcare policy and financing play an important role in community health.

Course 4: Faith, Spirituality, and Community Health

This course examines the intersection of spirituality, faith, and religion with health and healing. Students will explore both personal and community-based expressions of spirituality and their impact on well-being. The module highlights real-world applications—like Rosa’s story and faith-based health initiatives—to help learners reflect on spiritual needs in professional practice and understand the role of Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs) in advancing public health. 

Course 5: Community Engaged Research

In this course, we will provide an overview of community-engaged research and discuss its role and purpose. We will also examine the continuum of community-engaged research and use the Community Engaged Research Framework developed by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago to guide our discussion through three case studies. These case studies will describe the research processes used and highlight how key principles and strategies within the NORC Community Engaged Research Framework are applied in practice.