Establishing an Academic-Community Partnership to Promote Child Health in Boston

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose to establish the Children's Hospital Boston Collaborative Center for Community Health Research (the "Center"), which will build participatory community-academic research partnerships to improve child health research and community research capacity. Using principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR), the Center will bring together community practitioners and academic researchers in Boston in a partnership that has the potential to transform the way complex public health issues and racial/ethnic disparities are addressed in both research and public health practice. The foundation of the Center will be a partnership among 4 cornerstones of children's health and education in Boston that have a history of effective collaboration: Children's Hospital Boston/Harvard University, the Boston Public Health Commission (the public health department), the Boston Public Schools, and the Boston Conference of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers. The Center will be run collaboratively by a Director (and Principal Investigator) from Children's Hospital Boston, and a Community Research Associate (CRA) from the Boston Public Health Commission. It will be organized into 3 cores-Research, Education, and Dissemination-each of which will be co-led by a representative from the community and from Children's Hospital Boston. We will initially focus on four child health topics that emerged in a systematic community needs assessment conducted by Children's Hospital Boston in November, 2009: (a) asthma, (b) mental health, (c) obesity, and (d) unintended pregnancy and HIV/STIs. The specific aims of the Center are to: (1) build infrastructure to conduct outstanding community-partnered research that draws on a range of disciplines and methodologies to study issues related to the health and health care needs of Boston's children (0-18-years-old) and families; (2) design education strategies to train a new generation of academic and community members in principles of and skills for community-partnered research; and (3) promote dissemination of research findings to stakeholders and develop products that will benefit community partners, the greater Boston community, and beyond. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed project aims to create a sustainable community-based participatory research (CBPR) center that brings together Boston community representatives and Children's Hospital Boston/Harvard University faculty and students. We seek to become a trusted and respected center of excellence for rigorous community- partnered research that improves the health and well-being of Boston's children and families and serves as a national model for community-academic partnerships.