Our History

CARE was founded in 2007 at the Yale School of Public Health, where it was established to focus on community engaged research related to health equity in New Haven. In 2016, CARE began a partnership with Southern Connecticut State University and its College of Health and Human Services, now its anchor institution. Since its transition to SCSU, CARE has secured over $10 million in grants and contracts focused on community engaged approaches to address health inequities, particularly pertaining to chronic disease prevention and vaccine equity. CARE has organized with dozens of residents and community groups to build community gardens and implement nutrition interventions like Supporting Wellness at Pantries, advocated for safer streets for walking and biking, provided vaccine education to thousands of residents, built coalitions to address specific health issues, and trained dozens of community members as community health advocates. CARE builds upon this history to explore innovative ways to amplify the voices of those most impacted by inequities in New Haven. We look to sustain the community-level initiatives that address health inequities in New Haven while centering the voices of residents.