With Michigan communities facing devastating impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Community Engagement (CE) program at MICHR focused its efforts on assessing and addressing the needs of its community partners. This resulted in a digital toolkit that acts as a landing page for its numerous services and resources. Simply scroll through to learn more.
Contained within this toolkit is a three-minute needs assessment; special editions of CE’s newsletter, CE Bridges; community-focused flyers developed in partnership with the onWHARD Collaborative and community partners; flyers published by various community organizations to help prevent the spread of COVID-19; details about hand sanitizer donations and deliveries; CE Studios for COVID-19-related research; and various local, regional, and national resources for basic necessities and other important COVID-19 updates, especially for Michigan’s most vulnerable populations.
“CE staff and faculty, together with community partners, have had to pivot services to respond in meaningful ways to community needs during the pandemic,” said Tricia Piechowski, MPH, MSW, MA, program director of Community Engagement at MICHR. “It’s now more important than ever that we come together to support one another and create innovative approaches in this unprecedented time.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified and amplified health disparities in Michigan. It has also fortified our commitment to our community partners,” said Dr. Erica E. Marsh, MD, MSCI, FACOG, faculty director of community engagement at MICHR, “When they reported that educational materials were not inclusive or accessible, we developed flyers that were tailored to literacy level (2nd to 3rd grade reading), language spoken (English, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, and Chinese), and age group (youth and older adults) that have reached over 10,000 people in print and over 100,000 people digitally across the entire state.”
Another need CE partners brought to the table was the lack of hand sanitizer to keep communities safe from COVID-19. Through their partnership with the College of Pharmacy and MICHR’s Associate Director, Vicki Ellingrod, PharmD, CE has delivered over 110 gallons to nearly 50 community organizations serving in Genesee, Washtenaw, Livingston, Wayne, Oakland, Isabella, Clare, and Macomb counties. “The College of Pharmacy was excited to work with MICHR’s CE program to help support the communities in which our students and alumni practice and live,” said Ellingrod. “Helping communities remain safe and healthy is a key College of Pharmacy value and making and providing hand sanitizer helps us to achieve this goal.”
