Mission
The Lerner Center is dedicated to applying the best practices of social marketing and science to create public health programs that are motivating and sustainable. The Center will be a laboratory for the development of models and strategies that can be replicated in community and national prevention programs. We will work in partnership with citizens, students, researchers and public health professionals to identify needs, develop programming and deploy collaborative initiatives. Based at the Maxwell School and in conjunction with the Central New York Master of Public Health Program, the Center will use rigorous evaluation to help it key in on the most effective strategies locally, with an eye for building models that can be replicated nationally.
A key focus for the Center are efforts that utilize collaborative programming and grassroots messaging in the vein of Healthy Monday, a national public health movement started by the Center’s patrons, Sid (’53) and Helaine Lerner.
Healthy Monday, a major initiative of the Center, offers weekly prompts and programs to support people, and organizations, in starting and sustaining healthy behaviors. Its goal is to end chronic preventable diseases.
The Center works in partnership with a broad range of stakeholders including SUNY Upstate Medical University, the Onondaga County Health Department, the Newhouse School of Public Communication and many others.
Drawing on the expertise embedded in those organizations, as well as on grassroots wisdom, the Lerner Center will:
- Develop Healthy Monday and other programming that exemplifies best practices in public health;
- Fund and deploy that programming on campus and in the broader Syracuse community;
- Rigorously evaluate its work and the work of its grantees; and,
- Transparently share our data in the most accessible form possible.