: The University of South Alabama Center for Healthy Communities (USA CHC) EXPORT Center is focused on eliminating health disparities in the Gulf Coast region. A multidisciplinary, community based participatory approach has ben adopted to achieve this goal. This proposal expands the center's efforts and has an overall objective to improve health and healthy behaviors in African-Americans and economically deprived persons in the Gulf Coast region through novel, broad-based research initiatives focusing on health disparities. This will be achieved via efforts of 4 cores within the center: administrative, research, community engagement and research training and education. The research core will provide academic and logistical support to promote multidisiplinary research in minority health and health disparities. Six research projects will address biologic, economic, environmental and social factors impacting health disparities. Other activities of the core will facilitate the development of novel and innovative research projects to address health disparities by fostering unique collaborative relationships among the scientific community in our region. The community engagement core will implement programs to improve health of the populations at high risk for health disparities via dissemination of health information and community based health advocacyand to develop a new generation of healthcare providers and healthcare researchers who will focus on health issues that contribute to health disparities. The approach used will be the community based participatory research model and will be analyzed for effectiveness on changing health behaviors, raising health IQ, and improving health outcomes in African Americans. Programs to enhance the educational experiences of African American high school students will be expanded so that these adolescents are motivated to pursue careers as health care providers. The research education and training core will address the disparity in the number of African American and Hispanic biomeical researchers via early career development programs. The projects proposed by the USA CHC will expand the center's efforts to eliminate health disparities. New and old partnerships will be nurtured to bring more resources to bear uopn the center's mission and create a community collaborative for enhancing the health groups at high risk for health disparities.
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