Community connections: Promoting family health

Poverty. family and community violence, alcohol and drug abuse, preventable diseases associated with high risk sexual behaviors, teenage pregnancy, an d stress are among the escalating problems that traditional approaches to h ealth care have not been able to effectively reduce among children and adol escents. Dramatic changes in demographics and American lifestyles require c reative strategies to combat the complex health problems of children and yo uth. Health-focused community partnerships are crucial to addressing these complex and seemingly intractable problems.(1-2) No one individual, group. organization, or health discipline has the adequate knowledge or skills to address these problems. However, community networks-a pool of broad and div erse resources, experiences. expertise, and political power-can address the problems effectively.(3) This article describes a partnership between a co llege of health and human sciences in a major urban university and an inner -city middle school. The partnership, formed serendipitously because of mut ual needs and goals, seeks to enhance the health and well being of families within an at-risk, inner-city community.