COMMUNITY HEALTH & ENVIRONMENTAL REAWAKENING

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The long-term objective of this project is to improve environmental health conditions in the rural South by strengthening education and research collaborations between community organizations, environmental scientists and medical providers. Low land prices, wage levels and lack of political influence have made the Black Belt of the rural South, which is home to most rural African Americans in the USA, susceptible to polluting industries and toxic wastes. Our project seeks to make a long-term impact on environmental injustice by facilitating technical and political capacities of rural African Americans to be partners in research, to engage in community education, and to organize around environmental health issues. Our project builds on a current NIEHS-funded collaboration led by the Concerned Citizens of Tillery (CCT), located in the eastern North Carolina Black Belt. The Tillery area is 98 percent African American. Community Health and Environmental Reawakening brings together CCT, the NC Student Rural Health Coalition, and environmental health scientists from the University of North Carolina. Over the last 3 years we built new partnerships with community-based organizations and the NC State Health Department, sponsored the first NC Environmental Justice Summit, and conducted original environmental Justice and health effects research. With collaboration of the State Health Department, our new coalition will expand environmental health knowledge of North Carolina residents, students and health professionals; involve community- based organizations in community-driven health research; promote community and medical provider involvement in prevention and remediation of environmental hazards; and, develop field methods for exposure assessment and medical monitoring to support innovative community-based research on health hazards of intensive livestock operations.