The Bridges Center

The Bridges Center for Healthy Life Transitions was developed over a three-year process that involved bringing together community health stakeholders and interdisciplinary faculty to identify needs, assets, barriers, and partnership opportunities through research, service and education.

The creation of the Bridges Center represents a merging of expertise and resources among the university and surrounding communities to address long-term Community Health Issues.

The “bridges” metaphor is used to represent the Center’s overall purpose to improve the health and well being of people by building relationships or “bridges” between CMU, the surrounding communities: health and human service organizations, public and private sectors, consumers, individuals experiencing life transitions, and other universities with complimentary resources.

Through dynamic and integrated partnerships between the communities of central Michigan and the university, the Bridges Center will achieve improved health and functional ability of residents by enhancing the access of residents to health assessment, health education, and preventive care at critical points throughout life's transitions.

The Bridges Center process will establish a sustainable mechanism through which the community and university can engage on an ongoing basis. It will build linkages between community stakeholders and the university to foster healthy life transitions through research, education, and service.

The activities of the Bridges Center are focused on the needs of underserved, at-risk people during various life stages and transitions. Each phase requires a unique set of skills.  Individuals require varying amounts of preparations and resources to be successful and independent in these transitions and stages, including health care, social services, and education.  These stages include 1)Infancy/Toddler; 2) Childhood; 3) Adolescence; 4) Independent Living; 5) Parenthood; 6) Mid-Life/Sustaining Others; 6) Late Life/Retirement; 7) Frailty.



The Bridges Center for Healthy Life Transitions | Liana M. Bachand, Director (989-774-1274)

2103 Health Professions Building, Central Michigan University | Phone 989-774-2341 | Fax 989-774-2405 | bridges@cmich.edu