Health Equity Research Network on Community Driven Research Approaches
The American Heart Association and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation are funding four teams of scientists and community leaders to engage historically underrepresented communities in research to improve health.
The Health Equity Research Network on Community-Driven Research Approaches brings together teams of scientists from Furman University, Yale University and the University of California-San Diego to work collaboratively on research projects with community-based organizations in California, New York and South Carolina. A team from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio serves as the community engagement resource center for the network, leveraging expertise for training across network sites and nationally, providing consultation and guidance, compiling data reports and coordinating the administration of the initiative. The goal of this network is to advance health and well-being for everyone, everywhere, address the root causes of health disparities, and meaningfully engage people and communities most affected.
HERN Community Driven Research Approaches Awardee Teams
The three targeted research projects began on July 1, 2024, and will run for five years:
- Advancing Food Justice Through Partnered Community-Driven Research - University of California San Diego and YMCA of San Diego County: Led by Cheryl A.M. Anderson, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.S., FAHA, and Earl M. Felisme, the theme of their work is “flipping paradigms”. This team aims to re-imagine and re-orient the ways in which resources, information and wisdom flow between communities, academia and other institutions. They work to advance food justice – the belief that everyone should have access to healthy and sustainable food - in California’s San Diego County through three core programs: a community-led granting program that funds community priorities; an academic-led scientific methods program to support community-led grants; and a postdoctoral training program. The struggle of not eating enough nutritious high-quality food, coupled with concerns related to economics, environment, housing, education, safety and discrimination can lead to poor health outcomes. The team’s vision is that everyone, everywhere will eat healthful diets and achieve cardiovascular health through research and collective action work that is community-driven, diverse and inclusive.
- JUSTResearch, FamJUSTICE and InJUSTICE - Yale University SEICHE Center for Health and Justice and JustLeadershipUSA: Led by Emily Wang, M.D., M.A.S., and DeAnna Hoskins, M.A., this team aims to explore why people who are incarcerated, along with their family members, are likely to have an increased risk of poor health, especially poor heart health. They work with individuals who are formerly incarcerated to design research projects to identify health and wellness barriers. The team will collect data to determine what health risk factors may be most prevalent among people in prison and their family members and what types of interventions might be most successful in improving their health. The team plans to develop protocols and practices for a toolkit that can be used by community-academic partnerships to engage people impacted by mass incarceration in future research.
- Amplifying Community Power in the Research to Identify Systems Changes Towards Health Equity – Furman University and LiveWell Greenville: Led by Melissa Fair, Ph.D., and Sally Wills, M.P.H., this team studies perception of community power among people from underrepresented communities, as well as how local government stakeholders view community input in their work. The team has formed a community advisory board to create a model for training people to become more engaged in their community. They study the effectiveness of community-based research projects in which individuals of lived experience have a more powerful voice, and specifically how that may improve chronic disease and health inequities. Additionally, the team will conduct an analysis of research studies that have included community participation in the decision-making process. The team will also explore how local policies have impacted chronic disease across counties in South Carolina and the deep South.
COmmuNity eNgagEment for building Capacity, Trust, and Ownership of Research (CONNECTOR) is the name of the community engagement resource center managed by a team from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Led by Vasan Ramachandran, M.D., FAHA, key activities of CONNECTOR include supporting the network teams to identify, evaluate and manage community-based solutions for fighting heart disease that match what people think they need and are willing to support to bring about local changes for better health. This includes training the next generation of students on how they can work in communities and learn from and with the people in those communities to bring about change. Additionally, the team will share key learnings of the research projects.
Network awardees gather at an annual collaboration meeting.
Background
The American Heart Association, celebrating more than 100 years of lifesaving service as the world’s leading nonprofit organization focused on heart and brain health for all, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), a leading national philanthropy dedicated to taking bold leaps to transform health, committed $20 million to launch an innovative research initiative that engages communities most affected by health disparities in developing solutions to improve health and well-being. Four research grants were awarded to foster collaboration between research scientists and community leaders to develop community-driven research projects aimed at improving health and saving lives.
The Health Equity Research Network on Community-Driven Research Approaches is the fourth health equity research network funded by the Association. “This new innovative research network aligns with the American Heart Association’s multi-pronged approach to advance cardiovascular health for all, including identifying and removing barriers to health care access and quality, increasing equity, diversity and inclusion in science and fostering more diverse research,” said Keith Churchwell, M.D., FAHA, 2024-25 volunteer president of the Association and chair of the volunteer writing committee for the organization’s 2020 seminal presidential advisory on health disparities. “These networks are designed to identify ways to aggressively address adverse social determinants of health while engaging the very people who are most impacted in improving their individual and community health.”
Read more in the AHA Newsroom.
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