WCU Honored for Community Impact
The Maternal and Child Health Consortium of Chester County (MCHC) recognized community
partners including West Chester University at its recent Celebrating Healthy Families
Dinner and Silent Auction.
WCU was awarded the Community Impact Award for long-term internship and research partnerships with MCHC. Students from the departments of public health, social work, and English have completed internships and projects that support the mission and services of MCHC. MCHC’s mission is to advocate for and empower prenatal and parenting families to achieve healthy beginnings and a bright future through a caring culture of service.
In addition, several WCU faculty members partner with MCHC on research projects. MCHC is currently collaborating with Chiwoneso Tinago, associate professor of public health, in a research project to approach an effective, culturally appropriate, and participant-centered intervention for adolescent and young mothers to understand the unique challenges they face around caregiving and their own well-being. This study aims to understand parenting practices such as responsive caregiving and feeding, child discipline, paternal engagement, mental health, and social support of adolescent and young mothers.
“The longstanding partnership between West Chester University and MCHC has been marked by continuous collaboration on numerous projects,” said MCHC Board Member Lee Ann Sullivan. “Collaborative research includes support of our Perinatal, Periods of Risk project on data analysis, assessing how interventions align with other community or national efforts to address infant mortality, and adjusting better alignment if needed. In addition, research has supported data analysis on Healthy Start data on pregnancy complications related to prenatal and postpartum depression as well as the relationship to low birthweight and preterm births.”
Sullivan added that WCU faculty and students also collaborate on publications, events, and charitable initiatives. “It is a testament to their commitment that, nearly every semester, we have an average of five dedicated graduate and undergraduate interns from West Chester University who contribute significantly to our mission.”
WCU also received a citation from Senators Carolyn T. Comitta and John I. Kane at the event.