Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) Established in 1975 as the first medical school established at a Historically Black College and University, Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM), located in Atlanta, GA, is among the nation's leading educators of primary care physicians, public health practitioners, and biomedical scientists dedicated to serving vulnerable populations.
The Health Promotion Resource Center (HPRC) Department at Morehouse School of Medicine was established in 1988 under the Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine with a grant from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The primary goal was to develop a Health Promotion and Disease Prevention model for minority and other populations.
The philosophy of HPRC is that health promotion efforts are likely to be more successful in populations where the at-risk community is empowered to identify its own health concerns, develop its own prevention and/or intervention strategies, and form a decision-making coalition board to make policy decisions and identify resources for program implementation. HPRC implements a Community Organization and Development model through the use of community organizers and other support staff. The primary role of community organizers is to build coalitions in urban and rural communities. This enables them to become more self-sufficient and empowers them to address health and other problems as they see fit. The process for achieving this involves:
The development of a demographic, socioeconomic and epidemiologic profile; community entry;
The organization of a consumer-dominated board/coalition;
Incorporation and Nonprofit status;
The implementation of a Community Health Needs Assessment;
Resource Mobilization;
Planning and Programming;
The implementation of a Health Intervention Program.