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

描述（由申请人提供）：我们建议建立波士顿儿童医院社区健康研究合作中心（“中心”），该中心将建立参与式社区-学术研究伙伴关系，以提高儿童健康研究和社区研究能力。利用基于社区的参与性研究原则，该中心将把波士顿的社区从业人员和学术研究人员聚集在一起，建立一种伙伴关系，这种伙伴关系有可能改变在研究和公共卫生实践中解决复杂公共卫生问题和种族/族裔差异的方式。该中心的基础将是波士顿儿童健康和教育的四个基石之间的伙伴关系，它们具有有效合作的历史：波士顿儿童医院/哈佛大学，波士顿公共卫生委员会（公共卫生部门），波士顿公立学校和马萨诸塞州社区卫生中心联盟波士顿会议。该中心将由波士顿儿童医院的一名主任（兼首席研究员）和波士顿公共卫生委员会的一名社区研究助理（CRA）合作运营。它将分为三个核心——研究、教育和传播——每个核心将由社区和波士顿儿童医院的一名代表共同领导。我们最初将重点关注2009年11月波士顿儿童医院进行的系统社区需求评估中出现的四个儿童健康主题：(a)哮喘，(b)心理健康，(c)肥胖，以及(d)意外怀孕和艾滋病毒/性传播感染。该中心的具体目标是：(1)建立基础设施，开展杰出的社区合作研究，利用一系列学科和方法研究与波士顿儿童（0-18岁）和家庭的健康和保健需求有关的问题；(2)设计教育策略，培养新一代的学者和社区成员，使他们具备社区合作研究的原则和技能；(3)促进向利益相关者传播研究成果，并开发有利于社区合作伙伴、大波士顿社区及其他地区的产品。

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.