Building Healthy Communities

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Building Healthy Communities is a college-wide initiative to improve community health and well-being in South Carolina by focusing on the 5 areas of the social determinants of health. Through scholarly engagement, research, and student learning opportunities CBSHS works to improve lives through youth development and education access, social inclusion and community well-being, food security and the built environment, rural economic development, and access to health services.

The initiative involves these priority programs:

The Center for Research on Health Disparities helps develop, advance and disseminate research on population health and health disparities.
Clemson Food and Nutrition Security Initiative, a partnership with other Clemson colleges to address poverty, economic development and hunger in rural communities through food security initiatives
Clemson Rural Health, an outreach effort that addresses health care access and health disparities
Oconee Memorial Hospital-Clemson CBSHS Partnership on Aging , a partnership with Prisma Health Oconee Memorial Hospital to house the Institute for Engaged Aging.
Race, Ethnicity, Youth and Social Equity Collaboratory, which conducts research about the influence of social inequalities and social injustices on the development of racialized and ethnitized youth populations
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 and Outreach through the Social Media Listening Center, which helps organizations gauge and share information about important social and political happenings
Youth Development Programs advances the knowledge and skills of leaders of youth-serving organizations to better address the needs of youth, families, and communities.
The CBSHS One Health Initiative, through multi-disciplinary research and outreach, CBSHS supports the CDC One Health model that “recognizes the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment.” Through research, teaching, and service, CBSHS is developing an area of One Health expertise that will support and enhance these efforts through collaboration with the new Clemson University College of Veterinary Medicine.

CBSHS Research and Engagement Initiatives

View Our Initiatives on the Map

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. 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, SC Department of Public Health Offices, and United Way locations for all 46 counties. In 2023 further updates have been made that include sites for Clemson Rural Health clinics and mobile outreach, Department of Social Services, and other resources including summer meal programs, farmers’ markets, Fresh Produce for eligible seniors.
South Carolina Food Access Map

Visit the South Carolina Food Access Map
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
Farmer Support Resource Map

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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 15 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.

The 15 counties of persistent poverty in South Carolina are: Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Clarendon, Colleton, Darlington, Dillon, Fairfield, Hampton, Jasper, Lee, Marion, Marlboro, Orangeburg, and Williamsburg.

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
CBSHS One Health Initiative

Through multi-disciplinary research and outreach, CBSHS supports the CDC One Health model that “recognizes the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment.” Through research, teaching, and service, CBSHS is developing an area of One Health expertise that will support and enhance these efforts through collaboration with the new Clemson University College of Veterinary Medicine.

Visit One Health CDC