Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #117933

Christopher D. Heaney, MS, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, School of Public Health, UNC-CH, CB# 7431, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7431, 919-423-6441, cheaney@email.unc.edu, Omega R. Wilson, MA, LUTCF, United States Environmental Protection Agency Collaborative Problem Solving Project, West End Revitalization Association-WERA, PO Box 661, Mebane, NC 27302-0661, Sacoby M. Wilson, MS, Environmental Sciences & Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB #7431, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, and John Cooper, PhD, MDC, Inc., Program for the Rural Carolinas, 17268, Chapel Hill, NC 27510.

There exists unwillingness among many researchers in academia to commit time, energy and resources into research projects that are truly community-driven and community-owned. Current traditional research is focused upon university control of funding sources, data collection, and dissemination of data through publication. The formation of collaborative partnerships between researchers and community environmental justice and environmental protection non-profit organizations, however, is a highly effective means of solving environmental and public health problems in underserved communities of color across the United States. This presentation will focus on a successful collaboration with the West End Revitalization Association (WERA) in Mebane, NC. We will highlight the shift in approach required by academicians and researchers to develop experimental designs that solve environmental health disparities problems in underserved communities of color and avoid exacerbating these problems and exploiting residents of these communities.

Learning Objectives:

• Demonstrate how experimental designs can be tailored to solve environmental health disparities in communities of color
• Present a framework for researchers to be able to shift their focus to results-oriented community-driven research
• Create more collaborations between academicians and community-environmental justce organizations across the US

Keywords: Community Collaboration, Environmental Health

Related Web page: www.wera-nc.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.