The purpose of this three-year project is to develop an infrastructure and identify gaps to refine and expand the community-campus model in the School of Health Professions and Studies (SHPS) through creation of the Office of Health Disparities in the Urban Health and Wellness Center (UHWC) to enable the University of Michigan - Flint (UM-Flint) to engage in activities aimed at reducing racial health disparities. The commitment to pursue a research agenda of reducing racial and ethnic health disparities grows out of a long-standing well-established relationship with many community-based organizations located in Flint. The Project Export cores to be developed include the: Administrative and Shared Resources Cores managed in the Office of Health Disparities, Mentoring Core, Research Pilot Core and Community Outreach. The primary goals of the project are to: 1) further provide UM-Flint faculty members in SHPS with the academic knowledge and skill required to successfully plan, conduct, disseminate and evaluate health disparities research in collaboration with the community partners in Flint (Mentoring Core), 2) plan, implement, conduct and evaluate the initial health disparities pilot research efforts in two areas targeted by the community, Diabetes Mellitus (DM) and HIV/AIDS, by an examination of communication strategies specific to DM and HIV/AIDS including: 1) individual preferences for obtaining health information, 2) methodologies for delivering health information, and 3) theoretical approaches to health communication including specific appeals (personal responsibility, fear appeals etc.) (Research Pilot Core), 3) reach out to minority and other health disparity populations in Flint to: 1) conduct the mentoring orientation program and research projects; 2) disseminate information produced to the community and the academy through various outreach efforts; 3) enable better coordination and program/activity enhancement of ongoing K-12 programs and provide an experiential base upon which to build other K-12 interventions as gaps are identified (Community Outreach), and 4) maximize and integrate effectively the human and institutional resources to accomplish these goals (Administrative & Shared Resources Cores). These goals will be accomplished by utilizing an innovative community-campus participatory model described in the proposal that incorporates a network of formal partnerships with community-based agencies, health care institutions, schools in Flint, Cultural Center in Flint, as well as collaborations with senior research faculty at The University of Pittsburgh, University of Michigan-School of Public Health and Medical School. Existing institutional human resources will be used to administer the activities outlined in the proposal. A new Office of Health Disparities will be created in the UHWC to plan, coordinate, implement, conduct, evaluate and disseminate the results of the project. ? ?
