UCLA-Drew/City of Los Angeles Area Agency on Aging Center for Community Research

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): For the past 10 years, our UCLA-Drew scientists have worked in partnership with the leadership at the City of Los Angeles Department of Aging on community-based projects aimed at improving the health and quality of life of lower income older adults. With appreciation of our complementary expertise and resources, our academic-community partnership is based in deep mutual respect and a shared vision for implementing and testing practical evidence-based interventions to empower older adults to stay active and healthy. Together we have built strong relationships not only with each other but also with a vast network of community partners, and have collaborated in a bi-directional manner to deploy and evaluate NIH, Administration on Aging (AoA) and privately-funded programs aimed at improving the lives of lower income older adults. We seek support for a UCLA-Drew/City of Los Angeles Department of Aging Center for Community Research for Lower Income Older Adults. Support for this proposed Center would transform our existing collaborations into a permanent infrastructure to maintain a real-world ethnically diverse urban "community empowered tested" for deploying and testing behavioral research among lower income seniors across the largest and most ethnically diverse city in the United States. Programs that are shown to be effective in our "test bed" can be implemented systems-wide into the programming of the City of Los Angeles Dept. of Aging. This proposed Center would serve as a breeding ground for innovation, a model for academic health center/community organization partnership, and a "testing ground" for new programs that the national Administration on Aging could disseminate nationally to meet their mission of disseminating evidence-based models to improve the health and functioning of older adults. With support from an external advisory board of national leaders in aging research and the UCLA and Drew School of Medicine Development Offices, ARRA support for the UCLA/City of LA Center would immediately create new jobs and be leveraged to obtain new resources to ensure the long- term sustainability of the Center. Creation of a solid infrastructure that unites us in the form of the proposed Center would maximize our efficiency and accelerate the pace at which we achieve our shared objective of deploying scientific investigations aimed at improving the lives of lower income older adults. Our 3-year Specific Aims are: 1) to transform our existing collaborations into a permanent infrastructure that will maintain a real-world ethnically diverse urban "community empowered testbed" for translating research findings into practical community-based interventions; 2) to use this infrastructure as a platform to deploy and test innovative research projects with the goal of creating meaningful sustained improvements in the quality of life of lower income older adults; 3) to facilitate the adoption, implementation, and maintenance by the City of Los Angeles Dept. of Aging of empirically-supported community-based programs; 4) to secure resources to ensure the long-term sustainability of the proposed Center. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: By 2030, 20% of Americans will be aged 65 years or greater; clearly it is of tremendous importance to our changing society that we don't give up on seniors but rather identify practical interventions to help older adults meet the Older Americans Act mission of being able to maintain their health and independence. Support for a UCLA-Drew/City of Los Angeles Department of Aging Center for Community Research for Lower Income Older would transform the way community research is conducted by creating a permanent infrastructure that will maintain a real-world ethnically diverse urban "community empowered testbed" for not only deploying and testing behavioral research among lower income seniors across the largest and most ethnically diverse city in the United States, but translating research findings into practical community-based interventions with the goal of creating sustained meaningful improvement in the quality of life of lower income older adults.