Integrating Community Expertise into the Academy: South Los Angeles' Community-Academic Model for Partnered Research.

The Problem: Charles R. Drew University (CDU) and community partners wanted to create a structure to transcend traditional community-academic partnerships. They wanted community leaders integrated into CDU's research goals and education of medical professionals.

Strategies to Build Trust and Recruit African American and Latino Community Residents for Health Research: A Cohort Study.

Background: This study used Community Partnered Participatory Research (CPPR) to address low participation of racial and ethnic minorities in medical research and the lack of trust between underrepresented communities and researchers.

Methods: Using a community and academic partnership in July 2012, residents of a South Los Angeles neighborhood were exposed to research recruitment strategies: referral by word-of-mouth, community agencies, direct marketing, and extant study participants.

Results: Among 258 community members exposed to recruitment strategies, 79.

A community partnered-participatory research approach to reduce cancer disparities in South Los Angeles.

Background: Community-academic partnerships may offer opportunities to improve population health in communities that suffer from cancer-related health disparities.

Objectives: This project describes a community partnered effort to promote cancer research and reduce local cancer-related disparities.

Methods: We used a community-partnered participatory research (CPPR) model and modified Delphi method approach to bring together community and academic stakeholders from South Los Angeles around reducing cancer disparities.

Partnering to harmonize IRBs for community-engaged research to reduce health disparities.

Emerging advances in health disparities research include controlled trials and comparative effectiveness studies that are frequently conducted at multiple community and academic sites. Review by different institutional review boards (IRBs) presents a major impediment to the timely and effective conduct of such research. When research involves minority and underserved communities as well as multiple geographic regions, institutional requirements and interpretation of ethical standards may vary substantially.

Increased patient delays in care after the closure of Martin Luther King Hospital: implications for monitoring health system changes.

Background: The safety net system remains an important part of the health care system for uninsured and minority populations, however, the closure of safety net hospitals changes the availability of care. Using community-based participatory research methods, we explored the impact of hospital closure among late middle aged and elderly racial/ethnic minorities in South Los Angeles.

Methods: Telephone survey of participants in both 2008, after hospital closure, and 2003, before hospital closure, who self-identified as African American or Latino, were over the age of 50 and lived in zip codes of South Los Angeles.

The vulnerability of middle-aged and older adults in a multiethnic, low-income area: contributions of age, ethnicity, and health insurance.

This community-partnered study was developed and fielded in partnership with key community stakeholders and describes age- and race-related variation in delays in care and preventive service utilization between middle-aged and older adults living in South Los Angeles. The survey sample included adults aged 50 and older who self-identified as African American or Latino and lived in ZIP codes of South Los Angeles (N=708). Dependent variables were self-reported delays in care and use of preventive services.

Story of Stone Soup: a recipe to improve health disparities.

Just as scientific articles are used as a way of sharing knowledge in scientific communities, stories are used as a way of transferring knowledge within African American communities. This article uses the story and metaphor of Stone Soup to illustrate the Healthy African American Families' (HAAF) Community Partnered Participatory Research (CPPR) method of engaging diverse partners to address health issues, such as preterm birth, depression, diabetes, and kidney disease, and to create community-wide change through education, capacity building, resource sharing, and intervention development.

Work through the valley: do.

Much of the work for a community-partnered participatory research (CPPR) initiative is done in committees that operate under the principles of CPPR and the vision of the partnership, while implementing the action plans of the initiative. Action plans are developed in work group meetings and sponsored events that engage the community in discussion about programs or new policy directions. This article provides detailed recommendations for conducting meetings, completing assignments, and running events as the main body of work.

Begin your partnership: the process of engagement.

Community Partnered-Participatory Research (CPPR) is based on and utilizes community engagement as its central method and principle. In this chapter, we explain the key differences between engaging the community vs merely involving the community. The chapter also reviews the plan-do-action cycle of work that is used in each stage of CPPR.

Community-partnered approaches to enhance chronic kidney disease awareness, prevention, and early intervention.

There is a need to increase community involvement in addressing the growing burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Community-partnered participatory research (CPPR) is a collaborative approach that equitably involves academic, community, and professional partners in research, and the development of shared goals and of interventional programs to attain these goals. We present a case study of the processes, strategies, and activities concerning the interface of World Kidney Day goals and community-academic partnerships using a CPPR model focused on CKD.

Lay patient navigator program implementation for equal access to cancer care and clinical trials: essential steps and initial challenges.

Background: Disparities in cancer detection, treatment, and outcomes among racial/ethnic minorities and low-income patients are well documented. One way to reduce these disparities is to use patient navigators to address barriers to care. However, little information about optimal characteristics of navigator programs or considerations for those interested in setting up such programs is available.

Elements of well-being affected by criminalizing the drug user.

Objective: The authors examine the possible adverse consequences of incarceration on drug offenders, their families, and their communities.

Observations: State and federal policies on drug felons may affect eight elements of personal and community well-being: children and families, access to health benefits, access to housing benefits, access to assistance for higher education, immigration status, employment, eligibility to vote, and drug use or recidivism.

Conclusions: Minorities have a high chance of felony conviction and an increasing lack of access to resources, suggesting that patterns of drug conviction and health disparities may be mutually reinforcing.