Outreach Program Heading link

The Great Lakes Center for Occupational Health and Safety outreach program develops resources, provides technical assistance, coordinates educational programs, and collaborates on research to protect and advance worker health and safety.
The outreach program works together with:
- Workers’ rights advocacy groups
- Community-based organizations
- Labor unions
- Workers centers
- Employers
- Workforce development programs
While the Great Lakes Center for Occupational Health and Safety takes a comprehensive approach to improving, promoting, and maintaining the health of workers and communities, we devote special attention to the needs of disadvantaged workers and communities, the specific occupational and environmental safety and health needs of our region, and to the development of innovative and interdisciplinary approaches to addressing these needs. If you are interested in partnering please contact, Rolando Favela, at rfavela@uic.edu .
Examples of Our Work Heading link
-
Home Care
Policy Brief
- One of every 8 Illinoisans is over age 60. This number will rise to 1 in 5 by 2030. By 2030, Illinois is expected to have a 76% gain in the population aged 65 to 74, an 80% gain in those aged 75 to 84, and a 65% gain in those over 85. Nationally, Census Bureau projections predict continuing increases in the older adult population. With many older adults prefer staying in their own communities for long-term care, the role of homecare aides is increasing in importance. However, homecare aids are generally underpaid and lack training to communicate with older adults with dementia, depression or memory loss. Facing a variety of physical and mental health risks from their work, this brief recommends homecare aides need revised training curricula that include skills and resources necessary to reduce work-related injuries and health hazards. Read the full policy brief here.
Guide for Employers
- The Outreach program, in partnership with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, created the Health and Safety Advisor for Home Care Agencies. View it here.
Publication
- Love, M., Tendick-Matesanz, F., Thomason, J., Carter, D., Glassman, M., & Zanoni, J. (2017). “Then They Trust You …”: Managing Ergonomics in Home Care. NEW SOLUTIONS: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy, 27(2), 225–245. https://doi.org/10.1177/1048291117712544 Download a pdf of the article here.
-
Workers' Rights
The Outreach team co-authored a curriculum with the UI Labor Education Program to help workforce development agencies teach job seekers about their rights under labor laws, including FLSA, OSHA, workers’ compensation, FMLA, NLRA and others. The curriculum is in its second edition and is currently being updated for a third edition. Since its release in 2015 188 organizations in 16 states have used the curriculum. You can access the curriculum here.
-
Community Health Workers
The Outreach team collaborated with the Midwest Latino Health and Research Training and Policy Center to develop HEAL, a guide to healthy eating and active living for community health workers and health educators to use with their clients. More information about HEAL can be found here. If you would like to request access to the curriculum please contact mwlatino@uic.edu.
-
Gender based violence
The Outreach team participates on the steering committee of Our Turn, a national program sponsored by the National Council on Occupational Safety & Health, to combat gender-based violence in the workplace.
-
Environmental Justice
The Outreach team is participating on a project led by the ChicAgo Center for Health and the EnvironmenT (CACHET).
CACHET is currently developing an app for community residents to track and report environmental hazards. They are in the pilot testing phase now and CACHET staff will monitor the data and look for patterns.
The CACHET team is also collaborating with environmental justice partners to collect audio stories of community residents to use in advocacy work. StoryCorps is providing technical resources and will archive the stories at the Library of Congress.
-
Climate Change and Labor
The Great Lakes Center for Occupational Health and Safety recognizes the impacts of climate change on the health and safety of workers across the country.
We recently formed a partnership with the Labor Network for Sustainability to help support their Third National Convergence on Climate, June 28-30, 2019, in Chicago. Outreach Program Development Manager, Marsha Love, moderated the workshop: Complacency Kills: Climate Change and Worker Health and Safety.
The Center hosted a panel discussion on Climate Change, Workers’ Health and a Just Transition. Check out the full video here!
-
OHIP
The Great Lakes Center for Occupational Health and Safety hosts and mentors two interns every summer in this national program. Its purpose is to attract future health & safety practitioners into the field. We partner with workers’ rights organizations, such as labor unions and worker centers, so the students can learn first hand from workers about hazardous working conditions often found in low wage jobs and to make recommendations for changes.
Previous projects have focused on the hazards faced by temporary workers in manufacturing jobs in various industries (food processing, metal processing, warehousing and distribution), grocery workers and scrap metal recycling. The current project concerns violence in the fast food industry. For more information about OHIP visit here.
OHIP interns contributed to the following publication:
Bonney, T., Forst, L., Rivers, S., Love, M., Pratap, P., Bell, T., & Fulkerson, S. (2017). Occupational Safety and Health in the Temporary Services Industry: A Model for a Community–University Partnership. NEW SOLUTIONS: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy, 27(2), 246–259. https://doi.org/10.1177/1048291117712545
Download the pdf version here.
Contact Heading link
Marsha Love, MA
Program Development Manager
Illinois Education and Research Center
University of Illinois at Chicago
School of Public Health
1603 W. Taylor St. Room 1021
Chicago, IL 60612
(312)996-9568
lovem@uic.edu
Preethi Pratap, PhD
Director, Continuing Education and Outreach
Research Assistant Professor
Illinois Education and Research Center
University of Illinois at Chicago
School of Public Health
1603 W Taylor St. Room 1049
Chicago, IL 60612
(312) 413-1739
plakshmi@uic.edu