Chicago Southside Cancer Disparities Initiative (CSCDI): Placed-based public health education for community-based learners

The Chicago Southside Cancer Disparities Initiative (CSCDI) joins Chicago State University (CSU) a minority serving institution (MSU) and University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center (UCCCC) to provide a pipeline of biomedical and cancer research education for students who are interested in educational mechanisms for addressing the health issues which disproportionately affect the residence of Chicago south side. CSU, located on Chicago’s Southside graduates the highest number of African American students in the State of Illinois.

CSU’s newly established Master’s in Public Health program is strategically positioned to train local student learners in public health strategies that address the local health needs. Together with the UCCCC in a community where over 100,000 individuals work in health-related fields both institutions are engaged in training public health professionals with a hands-on collaborative approach. The Chicago metropolitan area has nearly 2,000 in the public health work force (about 8% of whom are disadvantaged individuals) having graduate education in public health.

The Association of Schools of Public Health recommends building the capacity for public programs to meet a predicted need of some 250,000 trained public health workers by 2020.[i]  Therefore, new public health programs and collaborations, such as CSCDI need to be developed to address the growing need and to close the gap. Collaboration with the UCCCC will help to increase the number of URM graduates trained as public health and biomedical researchers who will contribute meaningfully towards eliminating cancer disparities among minority populations.