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Institute Partnerships |
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HEALTHY FAMILIES BROOKLYN
A collaboration between Long Island College Hospital (LICH) of Brooklyn and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health (AAIUH), Healthy Families Brooklyn was established by generous funding provided by John Wren, president and CEO of the Ominicom group, chairman of the Board of Regents at LICH and board member of the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health.
For more information about Healthy Families Brooklyn, contact, Program Director Necole Brown at 718-780-1775.
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AAIUH-LIU-COLUMBIA PARTNERSHIP: COLORECTAL CANCER
In addressing colorectal cancer and screening, the Institute has partnered with LIU and Columbia to conduct a program on colorectal cancer. The overall goal of the project is to utilize a naturally occurring source of personal and social support (hair stylists) among women in African American communities to persuade women to engage in colorectal protective behaviors for themselves and their families. The specific goal of the project is to develop and test the efficacy of the curriculum guide that serves the purpose of significantly improving the awareness, understanding, and capability of the stylists to discuss the details of colorectal health practices. |
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THE BROOKLYN HEALTH DISPARITIES CENTER
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Left to right: Luther T. Clark, MD, Chief Division of Cardiovascular Medicine,
John C. LaRosa, President, SUNY Downstate Medical Center,
Ms. Yvonne Graham, Brooklyn Deputy Borough President,
Ruth Browne, ScD,MPH, CEO,
Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health |
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Mission
The Brooklyn Health Disparities Center's mission, collaboration between Downstate Medical Center,
the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, and the Brooklyn Borough President, is to develop
models to reduce disparities from cardiovascular disease in minorities and new immigrant populations
in Brooklyn through clinical and community research, community education and outreach, and medical
fellowship training.
Vision
To become a nationally recognized leader in the elimination of health disparities focused on
minorities and immigrant populations. Through the development of community partnerships, the Center
will work collaboratively to conduct research, develop interventions, provide training, inform
policy decisions, and exchange information that will increase all partners' capacity to reduce
existing health disparities.
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Center Projects and Grants
Establishing a Brooklyn Institute on Health Disparities
Developing the Brooklyn Center for Health Disparities is a multi-phased project.
Phase I -- analyzing the need, conceptualizing the structure, and identifying appropriate
institutional partners - was completed through a study commissioned by the Brooklyn Borough
President, Marty Markowitz, who has made addressing health issues and health disparities a major
focus of his administration. The Report "Establishing a Brooklyn Institute on Health Disparities"
was conducted by the Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, New School
University. The report recommended that the Institute be sited at SUNY Downstate Medical Center,
the borough's only academic medical center, and work in partnership with the Arthur Ashe Institute
for Urban Health. SUNY Downstate will serve as a unifying structure providing organizational
support and research for Brooklyn's numerous hospitals and community-based organizations.
United Hospital Fund Healthcare Improvement Grant
SUNY Downstate, the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, and the Brooklyn Borough President's
Office worked collaboratively and prepared a joint application seeking funding from the United
Hospital Fund to support identification of support sources and preparation of grant proposals to
develop a Health and Disparities Center. The application was successful in obtaining a $50,000
grant to hire a project manager to assist with structuring the Institute's master plan, assess
which community-based organizations would be appropriate partners, and apply for identified grants,
as well as explore further funding opportunities.
National Institutes of Health Project EXPORT: Excellence in Partnerships for Community Outreach, Research on Health Disparities and Training
ABSTRACT: The State University of New York, Downstate Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and the
Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health will create the Brooklyn Health Disparities Research Center.
The overall goal of the Center is to reduce disparities in cardiovascular diseases in minorities and
new immigrants in Brooklyn, New York. The initial Center will have four components. The first component
will serve as the Administrative Core of the Center and will aim to provide leadership in fiscal and
scientific matters. The second component will focus on the supporting feasibility and pilot studies to
determine the reasons why socio-economically disadvantaged and minority populations in Brooklyn suffer
with higher risks of cardiovascular disease. This information will be used as a foundation to seek further
funding to support the conduct of more comprehensive studies that will aim to ameliorate the incidence of
high risk factors for cardiovascular disease in minority and low-income populations. A third component of
the Center will provide training and mentoring to new clinical investigators at Downstate who are eager to
conduct research and provide medical services related to disparities in cardiovascular health in Brooklyn.
The fourth component of the Center will conduct outreach and information dissemination projects in the
community using methods that engage service providers in the community. This will ensure that the scientific
knowledge that is generated through research being carried-out at the Center is translated into information
that can be readily used by neighborhood residents. The partners have also established collaboration with the
Office of the Brooklyn Borough President that will enhance the Center's capacity to influence local policy
changes that can reduce health disparities. The Center has strong support from the community and from a
distinguished group of advisors that will be engaged in the success of its aims.
Community Outreach Core
The Institute has developed a curriculum to train African American and Afro-Caribbean salon stylists to deliver cardiovascular health messages to their customers. The curriculum has been piloted tested with groups of stylists from salons in Bedford Stuyvesant/ Crown Heights, East Flatbush/ Flatbush, and East New York, Brooklyn. This project was funded by an NIH grant as part of the Brooklyn Health Disparities Center. The Institute will explore further funding opportunities to develop an implementation program, utilizing the curriculum to train stylists to impact change in the cardiovascular risk behaviors of their customers. A Community Advisory Board has been created to further inform the community based participation of the Disparities Center.
DIVERSITY PARTNERSHIP FORUMS SEEK TO INCREASE NUMBERS OF MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS
Forums planned for each NYC borough
"We all know that the only way we can put efforts together [to combat health disparities] is through coalitions," Milagros Batista, co-founder of Alianza Dominicana
told the crowd of medical professionals, community activists, students and parents meeting at the Community Service Society on Nov. 18, 2005.
The gathering served as the first public announcement of the new Community Partnership to Increase Diversity in the Health Care Professions, a coalition
co-chaired by the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health (AAIUH) and Alianza Dominicana. Community Partnership is dedicated to promoting and ensuring
the education of more blacks and Latinos in heath care.
Marc Nivet, president of the National Association of Medical Minority Educators, gave those in attendance a presentation that pointed out the lack of health
insurance and poor health services people of color receive, and the corresponding scarcity of black and Latino medical professionals. "This is not new: this is
an ongoing problem that has existed in this country for many years," Nivet noted, but with the continuing population increase of communities of color, he said
it's past time for this situation to change.
Only an estimated 2,000 out of the yearly 16,000 medical school graduates are people of color. Besides working with students as they begin to prepare for
college, Nivet said that more young parents need to be informed about New York City area schools that can provide their children with a good, foundational
education at an early age. Black and Latino kids need to have the same educational opportunities as their white counterparts, so that when they try to enter
high school or college medical programs, no one can claim they are unprepared for the rigors of the science and math classes.
Providing the community with medical care experts who understand and respect blacks and Latinos is a priority, Nivet said. "We are beyond the point where
we could say we want you and we would like for you to become health professionals," he told students of the AAUIH/Downstate Medical Center-sponsored Health
Science Academy who were in attendance during the forum. "We're now at the point where we need you."
Community organizers pointed out that there are still many race-based decisions made about who attends medical schools and about how the health care industry
will respond to issues in the black and Latino community. Some twenty months ago, community leaders and health professionals started coming together and
decided they had to do something to change this fact, said Dr. Ruth Browne, CEO of AAIUH.
The new Community Partnership vows to "change the way things have been done, the way medical institutions decide who will be providing health care in our
community." Those interested in finding out more information about upcoming Community Partnership meetings should call 917-779-9430 or 917-476-4609.
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| PARTNERSHIP LINKS AND INFORMATION |
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