Morehouse School of Medicine's Prevention Research Center
Receives Five More Years of Funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to Conduct Public Health Prevention Research in Minority Communities
The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded MSM's Prevention Research Center (PRC) with a $4.5 million dollar grant to continue its critical work for five more years. This five-year funding cycle begins September 30, 2014, and will culminate September 29, 2019. MSM PRC will be part of a network with 25 other academic prevention research centers in 25 states across the country. The overall PRC network is funded to: reduce health disparities in communities by studying how people and their communities can avoid or counter the risks for chronic illnesses, such as HIV, heart disease, obesity, and cancer; develop and evaluate practical public health prevention interventions and disseminate study findings broadly across communities.
During this 2014-2019 funding cycle, MSM PRC intends to fulfill its vision toward
eliminating health disparities through prevention by: 1) conducting multiple interdisciplinary community-based research initiatives, inclusive of its core HIV
research, in African-American and other minority communities throughout City of Atlanta
Neighborhood Planning Units (NPUs) T, V, X, Y and Z; 2) training over 5,000 minority
community-based researchers and public health practitioners; 3) demonstrating the
value of community coalitions in conducting research and building community capacity
through the expansion of its Community Coalition Board (CCB) to include a greater
collaborative community-academic partnership with neighborhood residents, diverse
organizations and academic representation, where the CCB will be the driving force
of MSM PRC’s work; and 4) communicating and disseminating research findings and public
health information widely to advance public health practice and improve health outcomes
in communities.
An essential part of MSM PRC’s focus is the implementation of the core HIV research program. The research intervention will place attention on the prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections among African American adolescents ages 14-18 throughout NPUs T, V, X, Y and Z. The program will address gaps in the efficacy of: HIV and STI prevention to impact gender differences, a multi-component intervention versus a single component intervention, and including parents in the intervention program. The research intervention is being held at local Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCAs and community based organizations. The research efforts will incorporate the use of text messages and social media in a major social marketing campaign.
Dr. Tabia Henry Akintobi, Principal Investigator and MSM PRC Director, Dr. Rhonda
Connerly Holliday, Principal Investigator of the Core HIV research program; and Mr.
LaShawn Hoffman, Pittsburgh Community Improvement Association CEO and Chair of the
CCB serve as key leaders of the MSM PRC.
For additional information about this program contact the MSM PRC office at 404.752.1022 or prcinfo@msm.edu. For more information about the CDC National PRC Program, connect to www.cdc.gov/prc.