Community Programs Awarded Funding by UC's Clinical and Translational Science Initiative

CINCINNATI—The University of Cincinnati’s (UC) Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training (CCTST) has awarded five Community Health Program Grants to area agencies focused on improving health in the Greater Cincinnati region.

The grants, totaling $80,000, focus primarily on health promotion activities for children and/or adults in community settings such as clinics and schools.

Awards were given to the Adams County Obesity Task Force; Healthy Beginnings, Inc.; Interfaith Hospitality Network of Greater Cincinnati; R.C. Durr YMCA in Burlington, Ky.; and a partnership of the Family and Children First Council, Norwood City School District and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center’s Division of Adolescent Medicine.

The Community Health Grants Program provides a way to improve physical and mental health challenges in our community,” says Monica Mitchell, PhD, UC professor of pediatrics and co-director of the community engagement and research core of the CCTST. "These funded proposals address important issues including obesity, homelessness and premature births.

"Consistent with the goals of the CCTST, we were pleased that several funded proposals also included collaborations among community or academic partners. Such collaboration is important to impacting health and sustaining health promotion efforts long-term.” 

Funds for the awards were made possible through the university’s institutional Clinical and Translational Science Award, a five-year, $23 million National Institutes of Health grant awarded in 2009 that supports programs at the CCTST. Established in 2005 as a collaborative effort among UC, Cincinnati Children’s, UC Health University Hospital and the Cincinnati Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, the CCTST is a research resource and "academic home” for clinical and translational scientists and programs.

"The CCTST is very committed to support research and related activities in the community that will accelerate the application of discoveries in the laboratory to patients in the community,” says James Heubi, MD, co-director of the CCTST. "The Community Health Program Grants are essential to realizing this goal.”

"We are particularly pleased that all of these ideas were initiated by members of the community, who are in the best position to understand their needs and how to implement the programs,” says Joel Tsevat, MD, CCTST co-director. "These programs are great examples of how the community and the UC Academic Health Center can work together to promote health, health education and health research.”

Programs Awarded Funding

Increasing Physical Activity in a Rural Appalachian Community
Award Amount: $22,634
Grant Recipient: Adams County Obesity Task Force
Project Director: Becky Basford, Adams County Regional Medical Center
Academic Partner: Farrah Jacquez, PhD, UC Department of Psychology
The mission of the Task Force is to improve the health and well-being of the children and families of Adams County by assisting the community in creating a culture of wellness through increased physical activities and improved nutrition. The key challenge that will be addressed through this project is the lack of resources available for physical activity in Adams County. By providing a safe, interactive space for physical activity at a public school, the project will provide access to physical activity to all residents of Adams County. Specifically, the grant funds will be used to purchase a Triactive Fitness Trail that will be constructed on the recently opened North Adams Elementary grounds in Seaman, Ohio. The trail will comprise 11 stations of specific fitness activities, including seated lap pull-down bar, seated chest press, sit-up board, rowing machine, S-shaped bar, spring balance beam, double leg press, pull-up and dip station, push-up bar, back stretcher and multi-use bars. Community members of all ages will be targeted to use the Fitness Trail.

Advanced Nutritional Patient Education
Award Amount: $10,000
Grant Recipient: Healthy Beginnings, Inc.
Project Director:  Elaine Beeler
Healthy Beginnings is a network of six obstetrical clinics serving Greater Cincinnati’s inner city, suburbs, rural communities and Northern Kentucky. Its mission is to reach, educate and serve the at-risk and disadvantaged young women from our region who are at the greatest risk for poor, late or absent pre-natal care. The main goals of this project are to increase the delivery and effectiveness of dietitian services currently being provided and to acquire the curriculum for and implement a comprehensive series of nutrition classes that will teach mothers to plan and prepare nutritious meals, manage their food dollar, shop wisely, handle food safely and educate their children about good nutritional practices.

Child-Centered Program for Homeless Children
Award Amount: $18,000
Grant Recipient: Interfaith Hospitality Network of Greater Cincinnati
Project Director: Georgine Getty, Executive Director
The mission of Interfaith Hospitality Network of Greater Cincinnati is to provide homeless families emergency shelter and hospitality through interfaith communities, and to work with these families to find and retain stable housing. Since its formation in 1991, the network has grown to include 79 Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Unitarian and other congregations, and is now one of the largest emergency shelters for homeless families in the Cincinnati area. This program will help create and implement a developmentally appropriate, child-centered play program based on the model of Boston’s Horizons for Homeless Children and the basic principles of play therapy. The core of the program will be to help diminish the trauma of entering a shelter and to establish a sense of safety in the child. The funding will also be used to recruit and train volunteers who will help implement the program by providing supervised one-on-one time with the children.

FUN & FIT
Award Amount: $22,866
Grant Recipient: Family and Children First Council, Norwood City School District, Cincinnati Children’s Division of Adolescent Medicine
Project Director:  Debora Robison, Family and Children First Coordinator, Norwood Schools
This project will provide a high-quality, evidence-based program aimed at reducing obesity and promoting healthy lifestyles for young people.The model selected, FUN & FIT, was developed in 2007 by the health education team led by Paula Braverman, MD, professor of clinical pediatrics at UC and part of the division of adolescent medicine at Cincinnati Children’s, in collaboration with UC professor of health promotion Keith King, PhD. Interactive activities of this six-session curriculum include lessons on nutrition and creating balanced meals, physical activity, benefits and challenges of healthy eating and exercise, goal setting and behavior change strategies. A "train the trainer” model will be utilized to teach health educators and health aides to deliver the lessons on healthy eating and physical activity, and to identify additional strategies, content and materials to further assist them in effectively continuing to teach their students about healthy lifestyle eating and activity habits for the prevention of childhood and adolescent obesity.

YMCA & Kentucky Academy of Pediatrics Project
Award Amount: $6,500
Grant Recipient: R.C. Durr YMCA
Project Director:  Trisha Rayner, Executive Director, R.C. Durr YMCA
The Kentucky Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the R.C. Durr YMCA (Burlington, Ky.) have partnered to institute a pediatrician referral program designed to reduce the trends toward obesity and related ailments for children aged 9-14 in the 85th percentile for body mass index (BMI). Established in May 2008, the program has served over 145 families and continues to enroll children and their families on a weekly basis. This grant will support program operation and evaluation from March-December 2010. The program provides:

• Kentucky AAP participating pediatricians network for referral of youth to the YMCA for counseling
and a place for regular, monitored activity.
• Wellness coaching at the YMCA.
• Nutrition counseling at the YMCA.
• Medical interns for pre/post data collection of medical data.
• Six-month family membership to the YMCA.