The long-term objective of Community Health and Environmental Reawakening (CHER) is to improve environmental health in the rural South by supporting grassroots leadership and community empowerment. Isolated rural areas of the South have high levels of poverty and unemployment. Polluting industries may be attracted to these areas because of the decline in family farming, low land prices, low wages, and lack of political influence. This project seeks to make a long-term impact on unjust patterns of environmental contamination 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. The project is centered on a strong grassroots community organization that was founded in 1978, the Concerned Citizens of Tillery (CCT), in Halifax County, North Carolina (NC). In 2000, the population of Halifax Co. was 52.6% African-American, 33.7% of whom live in poverty; CCT's 300 active local membership is 99% African-American. In 1987 CCT organized the Area Wide Health Committee (AWHC) to provide medical care to predominantly African-American communities in partnership with medical providers from East Carolina Medical School. CHER brings together CCT, AWHC, and environmental health scientists from the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Public Health to, 1) expand environmental health knowledge of eastern NC citizens and health professionals, 2) increase local participation in prevention and remediation of environmental health problems, 3) provide education and outreach to environmental justice groups throughout NC, 4) increase the capacity of medical care providers to respond to environmental health problems of rural African-Americans, and 5) offer practice-based learning in rural environmental health and environmental justice issues to students in public health, medicine and allied health sciences.
These aims will be accomplished through collaboration of the partner organizations in education, outreach and networking; the Tillery People's Clinic; and a graduate-level semester-long course, Community-driven Epidemiology and Environmental Justice.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
Type
Education Projects (R25)
Project #
5R25ES008206-10
Application #
6949145
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZES1-LWJ-B (EJ))
Program Officer
O'Fallon, Liam
Project Start
1996-09-01
Project End
2008-04-30
Budget Start
2005-05-01
Budget End
2006-04-30
Support Year
10
Fiscal Year
2005
Total Cost
$230,273
Indirect Cost
Name
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Department
Public Health & Prev Medicine
Type
Schools of Public Health
DUNS #
608195277
City
Chapel Hill
State
NC
Country
United States
Zip Code
27599
Heaney, Christopher D; Wing, Steve; Campbell, Robert L et al. (2011) Relation between malodor, ambient hydrogen sulfide, and health in a community bordering a landfill. Environ Res 111:847-52
Resnik, David B; Wing, Steven (2007) Lessons learned from the Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study. Am J Public Health 97:414-8
Norton, Jennifer M; Wing, Steve; Lipscomb, Hester J et al. (2007) Race, wealth, and solid waste facilities in North Carolina. Environ Health Perspect 115:1344-50
Mirabelli, Maria C; Wing, Steve; Marshall, Stephen W et al. (2006) Race, poverty, and potential exposure of middle-school students to air emissions from confined swine feeding operations. Environ Health Perspect 114:591-6
Mirabelli, Maria C; Wing, Steve; Marshall, Stephen W et al. (2006) Asthma symptoms among adolescents who attend public schools that are located near confined swine feeding operations. Pediatrics 118:e66-75
Morland, Kimberly; Diez Roux, Ana V; Wing, Steve (2006) Supermarkets, other food stores, and obesity: the atherosclerosis risk in communities study. Am J Prev Med 30:333-9
Mirabelli, Maria C; Wing, Steve (2006) Proximity to pulp and paper mills and wheezing symptoms among adolescents in North Carolina. Environ Res 102:96-100
Avery, Rachel C; Wing, Steve; Marshall, Stephen W et al. (2004) Odor from industrial hog farming operations and mucosal immune function in neighbors. Arch Environ Health 59:101-8
Massing, Mark W; Rosamond, Wayne D; Wing, Steven B et al. (2004) Income, income inequality, and cardiovascular disease mortality: relations among county populations of the United States, 1985 to 1994. South Med J 97:475-84
Wing, Steve (2003) Objectivity and ethics in environmental health science. Environ Health Perspect 111:1809-18

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