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Rochester Healthy Community Partnership celebrates 20 years
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On Oct. 14, researchers, community partners and volunteers gathered to celebrate one of Mayo Clinic's longest community-academic partnerships. Rochester Healthy Community Partnership (RHCP) — a research collaboration focused on responding to community-identified health needs affecting immigrants to the U.S. — had just turned 20.
The event featured speakers from Mayo Clinic and the community who shared the story of RHCP’s beginning, its enduring connections to the community, its tremendous influence and its ongoing work.
"Being part of this group has been a blessing," says Yahye Ahmed, a longtime member of RHCP. "It has given me the opportunity to work and serve my community unconditionally."
A community case study published in Frontiers in Public Health described the history of RHCP and the lessons they’ve learned along the way. It also outlined how RHCP has championed and refined the principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR), leading to RHCP’s work being nationally recognized as a model for this type of research. At the 2024 Translational Science meeting, Mark Wieland, M.D., RHCP co-principal investigator, accepted an award on behalf of the partnership honoring it for "Addressing Health Equity Through Partnership and Innovation."
"This award is a testament to the long-term success of RHCP as a nationally recognized research partnership that leverages the expertise of community and academic partners to create meaningful health equity impact, locally and across the country," says Dr. Wieland.
A timeline shared at RCHP's 20th Anniversary event highlighted the body of research the partnership has produced, from Let’s Talk About TB (2004-2011) to Healthy Immigrant Families (2010-2018) to a Pandemic Communications Toolkit (launched in 2022 and ongoing).
Research conducted by RHCP has resulted in the development of:
- An effective, sustainable, community-based tuberculosis (TB) prevention and control program.
- A childhood obesity prevention program for youth in an after-school program.
- Community-informed health care practices, such as digital storytelling for chronic disease prevention.
- Interventions designed to reduce cardiovascular risk and COVID-19 health disparities.
"It's impossible to adequately acknowledge all the thousands of people who have contributed to the success of RHCP," says Irene Sia, M.D., founder and co-principal investigator. "Thank you for 20 years of sharing your talents, your cultures, your knowledge, your time and your support."
Dr. Wieland is director of the Community-Engaged Research Program in Mayo Clinic's Center for Clinical and Translational Science. Dr. Sia is a physician in Mayo Clinic's Division of Public Health, Infectious Diseases, and Occupational Medicine.
