The Georgia State University School of Public and its partners propose a Prevention Research Center (the GSU PRC) that will focus on the health and health disparities of migrants. There is a growing consensus that migrant health is a major public health issue. The City of Clarkston, Georgia is a refugee settlement and migrant gateway that accepts approximately 1,500 migrants per year. GSU has an established presence in Clarkston, primarily through the Perimeter College Campus, and has been active for some time in community mobilization and migrant health.
Our aims are: to establish a PRC that will be housed at the Clarkston branch of Perimeter College; conduct an initial research project that focuses on the health and well-being of migrant of children using SafeCare, a validated approach to the prevention of child abuse and neglect; constitute a Community Advisory Board consisting of major agencies that play a role in migrant health; use community- based participatory approaches; develop an interdisciplinary research team that will conduct prevention intervention studies; institute communications mechanisms to disseminate findings widely, and translate research into operable intervention activities in the community. Our overall strategy is to work with the migrant community and the community-at-large to create a safe place for children in an environment that diminishes the impact of adverse social determinants. Our proposed research project will create culturally appropriate adaptations of the SafeCare model, develop and test two models for implementation in this special setting, and identify broader factors that influence program delivery. We will specifically test the utility of ?task shifting;? that is, appropriately moving tasks that can be performed by less trained personnel, including community members. The project will be led by Dr. Michael Eriksen, Founding Dean of the School of Public Health, and Dr. Rodney Lyn, the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. The internal structure of the proposed PRC includes administrative and technical units concerned with communication, dissemination, and translation, as well as faculty from Perimeter College and other Schools and Colleges of GSU. The project will be guided by a Community Advisory Board, to be chaired by a member of the migrant community. Though specific prevention research will be the result of collaboration with community members and agencies, we envision that one of our major products will be a toolbox of multipurpose methods that can be applied in a multi-ethnic environment. To that end, an extensive program of community training is proposed. We foresee extensive collaboration with the PRCs that share our interests and challenges.

Public Health Relevance

Clarkston, Georgia is a refugee settlement and migrant gateway city that accepts thousands of migrants each year. A Prevention Research Center at Georgia State University (the GSU PRC) that is to be housed in the diverse community of Clarkston will provide a unique opportunity for a community-academic partnership focused on migrant health and community needs. This proposed mixed-method implementation study seeks to adapt the evidence-based parenting program, SafeCare, to evaluate two methods of implementation, as addressing early adverse experiences of children is a key to improving long-term mental and physical health.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Center for Chronic Disease Prev and Health Promo (NCCDPHP)
Type
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research Centers (U48)
Project #
5U48DP006393-02
Application #
10005885
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZDP1)
Project Start
2019-09-30
Project End
2024-09-29
Budget Start
2020-09-30
Budget End
2021-09-29
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2019
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Georgia State University
Department
Public Health & Prev Medicine
Type
Schools of Public Health
DUNS #
837322494
City
Atlanta
State
GA
Country
United States
Zip Code
30302