Emory University Rollins School of Public Health

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: HOWARD FRUMKIN, MD, DRPH

Program Description
The Southern Center of Excellence in Environmental Health Practice (SCEEHP) provided training in a series of 10 modules, which include Web-based instruction or resources followed by a 2-day workshop on the Emory campus. The training framework was based on the Ten Essential Environmental Health Services and the Core Competencies for the Effective Practice of Environmental Health. Participants included health directors, environmental program managers, and others from health departments in Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The program is designed to build capacity to address current and emerging challenges in environmental health, many of which fall outside the scope of traditional sanitarian duties.

Goals and Objectives
The goal of SCEEHP is to protect and promote the environmental health of communities in Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The specific project objectives are to

provide environmental health training to key personnel from local health departments;
enhance the capacity of a school of public health to address environmental health practice issues; and
produce training materials that will be broadly useful in environmental health training.

Products and Outcomes
Products and outcomes from this program included the following:

Needs were assessed through an initial survey, discussions during the planning workshop and ongoing discussions of upcoming training modules.
For each training module, learning resources such as journal articles, book chapters, PowerPoint presentations and speaker notes were provided. The best of the materials will be repackaged to make them more broadly useful.
The program was completed by 20 of the 27 initial participants. In addition, approximately 10 interested individuals attended intermittently.

Impact to the Community
The networking function of the program was extremely beneficial. Training evaluations indicated that participants gained knowledge and skills from each module in the training sequence. In addition, many attendees are already applying skills and knowledge from the training in their daily work, including community outreach, risk communication, media relations, and conflict resolution.

Feedback from Customers
“This was a great course. The value of the knowledge gained is priceless even after 18 years in public health.”—course participant

“All modules presented thought-provoking material that was applicable to the profession and made me a more ‘rounded’ person with a much better picture of what we face and resources available…I wish we had more time. This was one of, if not, the best, things I have participated in with respect to helping me professionally (27 years).”—course participant

“The most useful thing learned was the ‘big picture.’ Realizing how all environmental issues relate to one another and how these issues are approached in different states and agencies… This was also a great networking opportunity among professionals in the environmental health/public health field.”—course participants

View Presentation 1 [PDF - 42 KB]

View Presentation 2 [PPT - 54 KB]

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