>newground
Eight theaters and the latest digital technology—it’s not the local cineplex or even the IMAX. It’s the Ruth Lilly Health Education Center, located in downtown Indianapolis. With a $3 million grant from the Lilly Endowment, a partnership between the RLHEC, the School of Informatics at IUPUI, and the School of Allied Health Sciences will create a health education “learning laboratory.”
Indiana ranks among the worst states in the nation on serious health indicators in children, such as high rates of smoking and obesity. School of Allied Health Sciences Dean Mark S. Sothmann explains, “These problems are multifaceted, and the difficulty of designing effective interventions to promote beneficial change should not be underestimated.
The concept is a simple one, but the potential impact is powerful. The Ruth Lilly Health Education Center, founded in 1989, supplements the ongoing health education of homes, schools, and communities. At the RLHEC they teach health by emphasizing wellness as a way to prevent disease and enrich the quality of life. The Center offers programs on general health, drug education, nutrition and fitness, disease prevention and control. The results are healthier, happier children who become healthier, happier adults, and ultimately more productive citizens of the state of Indiana.
Joining Forces
RLHEC President Julian T. Peebles said, “The combined power of the School of Informatics with the health education expertise of the School of Allied Health Sciences and the teaching excellence of the Ruth Lilly Education Center will not only impact health education in Indiana, it may also provide a template for future education in general.”
School of Informatics Executive Associate Dean Darrell L. Bailey adds, “This grant from the Lilly Endowment and the partnership will dramatically enhance the learning environments at the Center. Thousands of young people will benefit from the latest information concerning fundamental health issues so essential for a productive and economically prosperous society.”
“More than any previous generation,” Sothmann continues, “our kids learn through the visual media. With this grant, the Ruth Lilly Health Education Center and IUPUI form a partnership to use state-of-the-art information technology to deliver powerful and poignant visual messages regarding the impact of one's choices for health. As importantly, this partnership provides the opportunity to ask and answer certain fundamental questions about how we might better use new digital media to promote healthy lifestyles in children. Such results can be shared with Indiana's education and health professionals as well as nationally for developing more specific interventions at critical ages.”
Assisted by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, each of the more than 30 programs offered at the Center will be digitized using the combined expertise of the IUPUI-RLHEC team. New outreach and web-based programs will be created, further expanding opportunities for the Center to reach even larger audiences and a much-expanded geographical area.
Marjorie Meyer, chairwoman of the Board for the RLHEC, states, “In the hands of some of the most creative educators in Indianapolis, this technology will help provide treasured and invaluable experiences to the children and adults who come to the Center.”
>Cary Boyce
Find out more about the Ruth Lilly Health Education Center, the School of Informatics, and the School of Allied Health Sciences.