722 West 168th Street
New York, NY 10032
http://www.mailman.hs.columbia.edu

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Contact

Emily Nishi
212.305.0409

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About

The Partnership is administered within the Center for Applied Public Health (the Center) in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences of Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health (SPH). As its overall mission, the SPH strives to improve public health and prevent disease especially among minority populations and chronically under-served communities. It also promotes equal access to health care services working through health education, research and a wide variety of service initiatives.

The Center was created in 1992 in response to the 1988 Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report "The Future of Public Health", which called for creating and strengthening linkages between schools of public health, state and local health departments and other health and social services agencies. For sixteen years, the Partnership For Family Health (formerly the Northern Manhattan Women and Children HIV Project) has exemplified an effective collaboration between a school of public health and other health service organizations.

Since 1988, SPH has been the coordinating entity for the Partnership, a collaboration between the SPH and five major medical centers in upper Manhattan, (Harlem Hospital Center, Metropolitan Hospital Center, Mt. Sinai Medical Center, New York Presbyterian Hospital and St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center). The Partnership also benefits from strong and long-standing relationships between colleagues striving to reach analogous goals. The director of the Partnership, Nancy VanDevanter, is also the director of the Center.

The Partnership also works closely with a network of 141 community- based organizations. Our service area includes four community districts that cover East, and Central Harlem and Washington Heights/Inwood, from 96th Street north on the East Side, and from 59th Street north on the West Side.

In addition to overall coordination and administration of the Partnership, there are several initiatives coordinated by the Center for Applied Public Health staff that serve clients throughout the Partnership. They include the Adolescent Initiative Project (AIP), Minority AIDS Initiative (MAI), Respite Program, and Disclosure Clinicians Group.