Recorded presentation

John E. Vena, PhD¹, Freda Wilson, PhD², Harold Mitchell², Donald J. Goodwin, MS, DrPH³, and Reginald S. Avery, PhD⁴. (1) Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of South Carolina, 800 Sumter St., Columbia, SC 29208, 803-777-7333, jvena@gwm.sc.edu, (2) Community Health Center, ReGenesis, PO Box 5158, 138 Hall Street, Spartanburg, SC 29302, (3) Director, Epidemiology Bureau, So Carolina Dept of Health & Environmental Control, P.O. Box 101106, Columbia, SC 29211, (4) University of South Carolina Spartanburg, 800 University Way, Administration Building Room 224 C, Spartanburg, SC 29303

The ReGenesis Community, Health, Environmental, Educational and Research Connection (RCHERC) is a community, environmental injustice, health, education and research partnership. The partners include health care providers at the ReGenesis Community Health Center (CHC), environmental health scientists at the University of South Carolina (USC) and the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), as well as educators/researchers at the University of South Carolina Spartanburg Campus (USCS). The RCHERC partnership was forged to create a working alliance between healthcare professionals, researchers in environmental health and citizens affected by environmental hazards in Spartanburg, SC. A critical element of the partnership is to provide connectivity and opportunities for collaboration between impacted citizens, public health, environmental scientists, educators and community. The RCHERC model demonstrates the effectiveness of a positive coalition in tackling public health and environmental issues in Upstate South Carolina. We will report on the community-based participatory research methods that are being employed, including the framework to undertake tasks and set goals, the function of the active steering committee and support staff from the community and the development of the memorandum of understanding. Activities employed to nurture the University-community partnerships will be highlighted. We will report on the progress in meeting the first year objectives of 1)Building the partnership 2) studying and documenting potential exposure pathways and evaluating health concerns in the target population, 3)setting the research agenda to meet the needs and concerns of the community partners and 4) development and implementation of community education about environmental and occupational health.

Learning Objectives: The participants in this sessionwill be able to

1)Describe the environmental justice issues in Spartanburg,SC
• Recognize the members of the partnership and their roles and participation 3)Articulate the structures, processes and progress in conducting CBPR research and education.

Keywords: Environmental Justice, Community-Based Partnership

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation