Announcing the 2024 Awardees of PolicyLab’s Community Partnerships in Research Program

Launched in 2022, PolicyLab’s Community Partnerships in Research Program funds community-engaged research pilot grants. The program seeks to promote health equity in the Greater Philadelphia area by building and deepening community-academic partnerships for research targeting health improvements among children and their families.

Through two grant types—Joint Pilot Project Awards and Partnership Development Awards— the program specifically aims to build capacity at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) for community-academic partnered research and to support the next generation of health equity researchers in the use of community-based research methods and principles.

PolicyLab is excited to announce the Year 2 awardees for both award tracks:

Joint Pilot Project Awards are geared towards established community-academic partnerships who seek funds for a well-defined research project that may produce preliminary data or programs for future competitive grant applications.

  • "Building Communication Strategies Among Black Fathers and Their Youth: A Pilot Study to Develop and Disseminate Strength-based Parent-Teen Resources" — Jillian Lucas Baker, DrPH, EdM, from CHOP’s Craig-Dalsimer Division of Adolescent Medicine’s Center for Parent and Teen Communication, and Joel Austin from Daddy University Inc.

  • "Adaptation of the Students Talking About Relationships (STAR) Curriculum for LGBTQI Youth" —Marné Castillo, PhD, MEd, and Bevin Gwiazdowski, MSW, PolicyLab members from CHOP’s Adolescent Initiative and the Craig-Dalsimer Division of Adolescent Medicine, and Sydney Rolle-Stern, MPH, from the Lutheran Settlement House. This award is sponsored in partnership with the CHOP Clinical and Translational Research Award (CTSA) program.

  • "A Multimodal Approach to Exploring the Adultification of Black Girls and the Building of Community-Centered Dissemination of Findings" — Daniela Brissett, MD, and Nadia Dowshen, MD, MSHP, PolicyLab members from CHOP’s Craig-Dalsimer Division of Adolescent Medicine, and Tawanna Jones, EdD, from we R.E.I.G.N: Rooting, Empowering, and Inspiring a Girl’s Nation

Partnership Development Awards provide seed funding to support activities related to the development of new or emerging community-academic research partnerships.

  • "Community Guided Development of an Interprofessional NICU Equity Champion Team and Bias Mitigation Strategies" — Diana Montoya-Williams, MD, MSHP, PolicyLab member from CHOP’s Division of Neonatology, and Jenné Johns, MPH, from Once Upon a Preemie, Inc.

Want to learn more? Click here for more information about the awarded projects and program.