Expanding Infrastructure for Community-Academic Research Partnerships in Detroit

University Of Michigan At Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is extensive research evidence that stressors in the social and physical environment are associated with poor health outcomes, and that these conditions contribute to ethnic, racial and socioeconomic health disparities. There is a continuing need for research that integrates multiple dimensions of health disparities (e.g., biomedical, social, behavioral), and that applies different methodological and conceptual approaches to assessing and monitoring them. The aim of such research is to disseminate and translate findings into practice to reduce and ultimately eliminate these disparities. There is growing recognition that bi-directional relationships between academic health centers and community entities (e.g., community-based organizations, local health departments) are needed to engage in collaborative research to improve public health. In addition, community entities and academic institutions need enhanced capacity to achieve equity in these research partnerships. To achieve these ends, sustainable infrastructures that fundamentally transform communication and collaboration between local communities and academic health centers must be developed and expanded. The proposed project "Expanding Infrastructure for Community-Academic Research Partnerships in Detroit," will be facilitated by the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center (URC), a long-standing bi- directional effort, in collaboration with three of its affiliated partnerships: Community Action against Asthma (CAAA), the Healthy Environments Partnership (HEP), and the REACH Detroit Partnership (REACH). In response to the needs identified by the Detroit communities involved, CAAA, HEP, and REACH have been actively engaged in studying and addressing the biological, social and physical environmental determinants of asthma, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, respectively. For the past 5 years the Detroit URC has not had the core infrastructure support needed to establish new productive and sustainable community-academic research partnerships to expand efforts to conduct research relevant to the communities involved, and to disseminate findings in a way that maximizes impact on health disparities. Thus, the overarching goal of the proposed project is to expand and reconfigure the infrastructure of the Detroit URC in order to facilitate new, equitable collaborative relationships between academic and community entities and enhance their capacity to conduct and disseminate health disparities research, and thereby improve the health of residents of Detroit. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: There is extensive research evidence that numerous factors in the social and physical environment (e.g., biomedical, social, behavioral) are associated with poor health outcomes and that these contribute to ethnic, racial and socioeconomic health disparities. There is also growing recognition that bi-directional relationships between academic health centers and community entities (e.g., community-based organizations, local health departments) are needed to engage in collaborative research to examine and address these health disparities. In order to achieve these ends, sustainable infrastructures that fundamentally transform communication and collaboration between local communities and academic health centers must be developed and expanded. Thus, the overarching goal of the "Expanding Infrastructure for Community-Academic Research Partnerships in Detroit," is to expand and reconfigure the infrastructure of the Detroit Urban Research Center in order to facilitate new, equitable collaborative relationships between academic and community entities and enhance their capacity to conduct and disseminate health disparities research, and thereby improve the health of citizens of Detroit.