COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL SCIENCES SCHOLARSHIP PORTFOLIO (2013) | Seite 152

Community Health Works
For 20 years Community Health Works has been a joint effort of the CCSF Health Education
Department (College of Health and Physical Education) and the SFSU Department of Health
Education (College of Health and Social Sciences). Nationally and statewide, the ongoing
relationship between our two home departments is one of a handful of long-term inter-segmental
partnerships between community colleges and state universities. The partnership’s focus is on
eliminating inequities in urban community health and in post-secondary education.
The partnership is an incubator of new ideas and programs, using grant funds to test and
diffuse innovative ideas in education and community health. The two institutions have worked
synergistically, accomplishing much more than we could by working separately. City College
has played the leading role in education and training, and SFSU has played the leading role in
research, development and evaluation.
The partnership has been extraordinarily productive, and has created many new programs for
the benefit of our students and communities. The partnership also adds to the state and national
recognition of our institutions. We are now piloting three Metro Academies at SFSU and two
at CCSF, with the career themes of community health, STEM and early childhood education.
These Academies are geared to college transfer and completion for under-represented and lowincome students. We have an unbroken record to date of institutionalizing programs initiated on
grants. For example, we have institutionalized at City College a series of CTE programs: the
Community Health Worker Certificate, the Drug and Alcohol Studies Certificate, the Health Care
Interpreter Certificate (with Kaiser Permanente), and the Welcome Back Center at John Adams
Campus. We have developed a dense network of community and employer partners including
Kaiser Permanente, the nine health departments of the Bay Area, and many others.

Scholarship Honors
PI: José Ramón Fernández-Peña, MD, MPA
Project: Welcome Back Initiative
•2009, Innovations in American Government, Kennedy School, Harvard University (finalist)
•2010, Cities of Migration, The Hague, Netherlands, recognized as one of the ten most
promising practices in immigrant integration in the world.
•2011, Invited to partner with the Clinton Global Initiative/America on the topic of job
development in the health sector.
•2011, E Pluribus Unum Prize, in recognition of the program’s success in immigrant
integration.
•2011, The White House recognizes José Ramón Fernández-Peña as a Champion of Change
for his work in immigrant integration.
•2011, The California Wellness Foundation recognizes José Ramón Fernández-Peña as
Champion of Health Professions Diversity.
PI: Mary Beth Love and Vicki Legion
Project: Metro Academies Initiative, Yes We Can and Community Health Workers
•Award from the Campaign for College Opportunity as Practices with Promise 2012 site –
Metro Academies (Love)
•Invited for a Washington D.C. Legislative Briefing on Metro Academies Initiative (Love)

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