Finding practical solutions to increase access to health care in Florida and in the nation’s communities, and to improving state and national policies that advance quality and affordable health care.
The Collins Center work includes efforts to improve health care in Florida. We take two approaches: helping individuals to improve their lives and helping change our public policies and practices. Working at the grassroots level is essential to understanding what good public policy should be and what changes we should seek. Working at regional and state levels on public policy issues then can be more effective in actually causing lasting change that helps real people.
Featured Video
On July 29, 2009, The Collins Center for Public Policy, in partnership with the National Coalition for Health Care Reform, hosted a conversation at Miami-Dade College together with health care experts, members of the community, and Florida's political leadership to review possible practice and policy options relative to the current national health care reform debate.
Promising Practices
Community Health Workers Raising awareness about the value of community health workers as critical community-based paraprofessionals who can connect people to health care and other social services.
Collins Center has developed a basic, Level I training in community health work. Collins Center has also developed, in partnership with Miami-Dade College (www.mdc.edu), a nine college credit Level II curriculum based on the Florida Family Development Credential developed Redlands Christian Migrant Association. For more information on how to organize and/purchase Level I or Level II training, please contact:lperez@collinscenter.org
Health Care: Florida Policy Targets
Health care for the underserved: Raising awareness about the health care access issues confronting low-income and vulnerable populations and offering promising practice and policy-oriented solutions
Oral health: Raising awareness about the intrinsic importance of good oral health to overall health and well-being. The Collins Center followed the Medicaid oral heath pilot offered in Miami-Dade County from 2004 to 2006, and participated in the Department of Health’s Oral Health Special Needs Work Group (http://www.oralhealthflorida.com/). TheMiami-Dade County Prepaid Dental Health Plan provides a complete analysis of the Miami-Dade oral health pilot. For additional policy analysis, view the Oral Health Policy Brief.
Men’s health: Raising awareness about the particular health care and social needs confronting low-income, vulnerable men.The Overtown Men's Health Project was a detailed study designed for the historic African American neighborhood just north of downtown Miami, Florida. The extensive questionnaire assessed the health status, behaviors, knowledge and access to care of men over 18 year of age living in Overtown. Select Overtown Men's Healthfor a copy of the study. In addition an article on the men's health study appeared in the June 2007 issue of The Journal of Men's Health and Gender.
Prison health:Raising awareness about the issues confronting incarcerated and formerly incarcerated populations, their families and communities and promoting promising practices and policy alternatives for the same.
Transparency in the State’s budget Raising awareness and discussion about the decisions and practices in spending in the state of Florida and the impacts of the same on health.
With Florida’s receipt of the federal American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) stimulus dollars, the Collins Center is using Web 2.0 technology to democratize data and facilitate public participation the decisions surrounding ARRA/stimulus spending in the State of Florida.Through this virtual space Collins is providing the platform from which to discuss these decisions and provide analysis based on expert recommendations from both the community and academia.
Publications
Perez, LM, “Opportunities to improve health for African-American men and their communities inside and outside of the correctional system” (book chapter), forthcoming, 2010.
Martinez, J., Frye, L. and Perez, LM, “Community health workers in the Black community: Building trust, alleviating pain, and improving health access,” Health Issues in the Black Community, 3rd edition, forthcoming, 2009.
Perez, LM, Ro, MJ, and Treadwell, HM. “Vulnerable Populations, Prison, Federal and State Medicaid Policies:Avoiding the Loss of a Right to Care,” Journal of Correctional Healthcare, Vol. 15, Issue 2, April, 2009.
Perez, LM and Treadwell, HM. “Determining What We Stand For Will Guide What We Do:On Community Priorities, Ethnical Research Paradigms, and Human Experimentation in Prisons,” American Journal of Public Health, February, 2009.
Perez, Leda M. and Henrie M. Treadwell, “Homeward bound and homeless: The challenge of those returning home after incarceration,” Housing: Socioeconomic, Availability and Development Issues, ISBN978-1-60692-371-9, Edward P. Hammond and Alex D. Noyes (Eds.), Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2009.
Perez, LM and Martinez, J., “Community Health Workers: Social Justice and Policy Advocates for Community Health and Well-Being,” American Journal of Public Health, January, 2008.
Pérez, L.M., Treadwell, H.M., Young, A.M.W., Williams, N., “A Call to Action from the Grassroots:Men on What a Nation Must Do to Reverse a Legacy of Separation and Segregation American Journal of Health Services, December, 2007.
Young, A.M.W., Pérez, L.M., Northridge, M., Vaughn, R.L., Braithwaite, K., Treadwell, H.M.” Bringing to Light the Health Needs of African American Men: The Overtown Men's Health Study,” Journal of Men’s Health and Gender, 2007.
Whitley, E., Jarrett, N.C., Young, A.M.W, Adeyemi, S., and Pérez, L.M. “Building Effective Programs to Improve Men’s Health,” American Journal of Men's Health, Volume 1, No. 4 December 2007. 294-306.
Pérez, L.M. "Accessible, Community-Based Care for Men in Distressed Communities," American Journal of Public Health, April 2006, Vol. 96, No.4, p. 588.
Pérez, L.M. with Barri Burrus, Mary Northridge,et al. “What It Takes to Deliver Culturally-Competent And Effective Smoking Cessation Services to Underserved Communities: Perspectives from Program Staff on the `Front Lines’ of Tobacco Control,” Journal of Healthcare for the Poor and Underserved, 2006.
Ro, M., Treadwell, H.M., Northridge, M.E. (eds), Pérez, L.M. et al (contributors) Community Health Workers and Community Voices: Promoting Good Health, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, October 2003
A major land purchase by the South Florida Water Management District in Florida's Lake Okeechobee Region will have an important impact on the region's people, towns, jobs, and future economies.
Read or download the Lake Okeechobee Regional Initiative (LORI) brochure
Coalition for Smart Justice
A State-wide conversation to explore better ways to achieve a safer, more just, and more effective criminal justice system.
An Open Letter to the Governor, Legislature and to the People of Florida
Sustainable Florida - Collins Center
Sustainable Florida - Collins Center is the premier statewide organization committed to the balance of economic interests with the need to be socially and environmentally responsible.
Print Page
