Congratulations to our 2021 Community and Collaboration Core Pilot Grant Recipients
We are pleased to announce the 2021 recipients of the Community and Collaboration Core Pilot Grants. These grants, provided by the Community and Collaboration Core, are designed to build and support community engaged research (CEnR) partnerships through relationship-building activities, exploring research interests, and developing infrastructure and governance for research partnerships.
Engagement Grant:
Discover by Engaging Community in Decision-making for Empowerment: The DECIDE Study
Mei Ching Lee, PhD, MS, Associate Professor, University of Maryland Baltimore School of Nursing
Randi Woods, MBA, MS, Senior Director, Community Care Coordination, Sisters Together and Reaching (STAR)
This project will use the PCORI 10-step Framework for patient engagement to:
1) Describe the baseline advance care planning status with selection of a surrogate decision-maker for African American persons living with HIV (AA PLH) in inner-city Baltimore.
2) Test the receptiveness of using community-prepared scenarios that unlink the surrogate decision-maker from death and dying to identify desirable qualities of surrogate selection and preparation among AA PLH.
3) Evaluate the acceptability of using community engagement and collaborative efforts in studying the selection and preparation of surrogate decision-maker for AA PLH.
Partnership Development Grant:
Academic Community Partnership for Family Health
Kesha Baptiste-Roberts, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor, Public Health Program, Morgan Statue University School of Community Health & Policy
Delita Galanos, MSW, MS, Executive Director, LIGHT Health & Wellness Comprehensive Services, Inc.
The overarching goal is to develop an academic-community partnership to build capacity to address community-level issues that improve the health and wellness of the residents of Baltimore City and reduce health inequities. Specifically, the project aims to develop foundational knowledge and conduct asset mapping of both organizations; assess the needs of LIGHT Health & Wellness and they community they serve; develop consensus on priorities for programming and research; develop a plan to enhance data collection and management to produce scholarly products that communicate the current programs’ impact; and develop a community-informed, culturally-tailored resiliency toolkit.
The Violet Voices Program: Empowering Adolescents and Elevating Youth Voices to Transform Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Services and Improve Quality of Care in the Baltimore Area Through Photovoice
Jenell Coleman, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Department of Gynecology & Obstetrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Jennifer Barton, Med, School Counselor, Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, Baltimore City Public Schools
Micah Harrison, MAT, Science Teacher and Instructional Lead, Western High School, Baltimore City Public Schools
The project will Identify the barriers and facilitators to accessing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services and education in the greater Baltimore area from an adolescent and young adult (AYA) perspective through use of Photovoice. A 10-step patient engagement framework will be used. The project will also establish a Youth Community Advisory Board (YCAB) to facilitate open dialogue among AYAs, JHOC clinicians, and Baltimore County Public Schools faculty and staff, with the goal of improving quality of SRH care, access to SRH services, and access to SRH education in the greater Baltimore area.
Effects of a Short-term Parent Mediated Social Training on Developmental Trajectories in Infants
Rebecca Landa, PhD, MS, Vice President, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Khalilah Slater Harrington, MeD, Chief Program Officer, Family League of Baltimore
The ultimate objective of this project is to mitigate language development disparities of children in under-resourced minority communities. This will be achieved by:
1) Establishing new academic and community partnerships to optimize community engagement in research aimed at reducing disparities of infants in under-resourced minority communities via a child-responsive parent coaching program;
2) Identifying existing community-based agencies and services focused on empowering under-resourced minority parents to promote their infants’ language development
3) Examining stakeholders’ interest and capacity needs for conducting research aimed at improving infant language development outcomes.
Establishing a Community-Academic Partnership Focused on Improving Adolescent Relationship Health in Baltimore City Through Engagement of Youth Leaders
Pamela Matson, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Joni Holifield, Founder, HeartSmiles
This project aims to:
1) Establish a community-academic partnership, including youth leaders, focused on the shared priority of improving adolescent relationship health in Baltimore City
2) Create a sustained focus on adolescent relationship health among a larger community audience by positioning youth leaders as advocates and credible messengers regarding the work of the partnership.
3) Jointly develop research goals and intervention strategies for healthy adolescent relationships among youth in Baltimore City, culminating in grant proposals to be submitted during the project period.
School-Based Mindful Movement Intervention: A Community-Based Partnership for Helping At-Risk Children Cultivate Emotional Balance and Attention
Keri Rosch, PhD, MA, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Kate Seidl, MS, Principal, City Neighbors Charter School, Baltimore City Public School System
This project will implement and evaluate the effectiveness of a Mindful Movement Intervention in helping 2nd and 3rd graders to improve skills important to attentional, behavioral, and emotional control. This project will host listening sessions with teachers, parents, and students to understand how to optimize the program for the school setting and will promote engagement with the school and sustainability of the program by training current teachers at City Neighbors School as the mindful movement instructors.
The Engagement Grant provides up to $50,000 in starter funds for projects specifically focused on innovative CEnR that will test innovations that address health problems through community-engaged implementation. Partnerships are expected to use approaches along the continuum of engagement, including community-based participatory research, patient-centered outcomes research, or other engaged research collaborations for collaborative research and grant applications.
The Partnership Development Grants provide up to $10,000 and aims to support partnership building activities for “new” collaborations between faculty from three academic institutions (Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland at Baltimore, and Morgan State University) and a community partner (community or faith-based organization or public agency) from the greater Baltimore area.
