Center for Global Initiatives

"Health is perhaps the 'Most Common Denominator' in a region's potential for success as it is so interconnected with economic sustainability, eradicating poverty, preventing war, mitigating violence, and fostering social prosperity." - Dr. Chris E. Stout, Founding Director

The Center for Global Initiatives (CGI) is the first Center devoted to training multidisciplinary healthcare professionals and students to bring services that are integrated, sustainable, resiliency-based, and have publicly accountable outcomes to areas of need, world-wide, via multiple, small, context-specific collaboratives that integrate primary care, behavioral healthcare, systems development, public health, and social justice.  The word “global,” it is not used herein as a synonym for overseas or international, but rather local as well as transnational disparities and inequities of health risk and illness outcomes. We seek to eschew the many disconnects between separation of body/mind, physical/mental, individual/community, and offer a synthetic model of integration. CGI’s philosophy and approach is always that of a collaborator and colleague. No West-Knows-Best hubris. We learn as well as teach. We feel as well as treat.                                                                                                  . The Center also provides:  Forums Workshops Fellowship Program Certificate Program in Global Health In-country training Project Scholarships Film Discussion Groups Post-Doctoral Program (Clinical Psych) Continuing Education credits available And our newest Program... MENTOR: Methods, Experiences, Networking & Training, Organizing & Research We are proud to announce a very special and unique new program that provides individualized mentorship for people wanting to learn how to conduct their own project(s). We provide skills training along with the contacts and tools to actualize their plans. In some instances, undergraduate and graduate credits are able to also be provided. . For more information or to make a tax-deductable contribution, click here to contact us Center for Global Initiatives Voice +1.847.550.0092, ext. 2

Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.  -- Martin Luther King, Jr. . The Problem Healthcare services, sciences, systems, education, and research all suffer from disconnections – globally and locally, biologically and behaviorally, training and practice. Health inequities are global in scale, however it is the philosophy of the Center that the optimal way of successfully addressing these injustices is by multiple, smaller scale projects, with a coordinated focus and outcome accountability.   The Solution Until now, there has not been a truly integrated Center that is at once mindful of all the complex aspects of global health inequities while also focused on small, outcomes oriented projects or cases that will be agile, responsive, and empowering in clinical, training, and research domains.   The Most Unique Aspects of the Center             Perhaps the most important aspects of the Center for Global Initiatives are the simplest: 1)                  We serve as an incubator and hothouse for new projects. We help to nurture, grow, and launch them as self sustaining, on-going interests. 2)                  After a project has taken hold, we serve as pro bono consultants, fee-free-Coopers&Lybrand’s, if you will. We help those now managing the work with whatever it is they may need—materials, medicines, case consultation, introductions… 3)                  About 90% of all of our projects have come about as a result of being invited to do the work. That is, we do not per se come up with project ideas or toss darts at a globe to determine where to go next. There seems to be a global line out side our door waiting to be the next one. When we are not a good fit, we work to triage to a more suitable organization. 4)                  As best we can, depending on the project, we seek to blend primary care, behavioral health, and public health into a ultimately self-sustaining, outcomes accountable, culturally consonant result.   CGI goals are to: Advance the education and performance of local and international health professionals and students in health-related fields to meet the challenges of health inequalities; Maintain a philosophy and approach as that of a collaborator and colleague; Foster a sense of control over the lives of those we work with; Augment inherent strengths and resilience; Improve preparedness for reacting to manmade and natural disasters and their aftermath; Strengthen collaboration as well as the sharing of experience and knowledge among various stakeholders in global health inequities (primary care, behavioral healthcare, and public health); Improve people's lives by decreasing premature death and disability with a special focus on the underserved, refugee and immigrant populations’ needs; Provide clinical services, directly or via channeled funding; Augment existing medical, psychological, and science education, research, and service  capacity (including health education); Build capacity of local communities to improve health and health care access; Motivate the public and private sectors to drive consensus and action for the improvement of health globally; Expand medical and psychological sciences education to include behavioral and genomic sciences and drug discovery technologies (i.e., pharmacogenomics); Fold in issues of behavioral health, violence, and prevention as public health concerns; Integrate ALL the health sciences with policy and advocacy at both the governmental and non-governmental levels in order to create subsequent funding methods and sources, capacity building, and sustainable development.