Community Partnerships in Research Program

PolicyLab is looking for its next cohort of applicants! Letters of Intent are due Aug. 23, 2024, at 5 p.m. ET, and applications are due Sept. 13, 2024, at 5 p.m. ET. Please note this opportunity is intended for Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia employees.

About the 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 mechanisms, the program promotes capacity-building at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) for community-academic partnered research and the conduct of translational research using best practice in community-engaged research methods, while supporting the next generation of health equity researchers.  

Two grant mechanisms are available in this program: 

  • Partnership Development Awards provide seed funding to support activities related to the development of new or emerging community-academic research partnerships. Partnership Development Awards will be supported for a maximum of $7,000 for one year. 
  • 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. Joint Pilot Project Awards will be supported for a maximum of $40,000 for up to two years. 

We are excited to announce that PolicyLab will be joined in support this year with partnerships from the CHOP Cancer Center, the Health Equity Research Methods (HERMes) Initiative, and the CHOP Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA). We thank our partners for their support and commitment to advancing the health and well-being of the communities we serve.
 

How to Apply

To apply for the Partnership Development Award, please click here.

To apply for the Joint Pilot Project Award, please click here.

For the full Request for Applications, please click here.

Please submit your letter of intent and application as single Word documents via email to Tanisha Belton (beltont@chop.edu). A Review Committee composed of academic and community reviewers with experience in community-engaged research will review all grant applications, giving preference to those that have the potential to meaningfully engage community partners in the research process, improve research translation and decrease health inequities. Applications should be well written, precise, and succinct, and should follow the provided template.  
 

Key Dates

  • Letters of Intent Deadline: 8/23/2024 at 5 p.m. ET
  • Application Deadline: 9/13/2024 at 5 p.m. ET
  • Request for Applications: 7/12/2024-9/13/2024
  • Technical Assistance Office Hours: 8/7/2024 & 8/14/2024, 12-2 p.m. ET
  • Notification of Award: 10/18/2024
  • Anticipated Start Date: 1/1/2025

Program Contacts

Dr. Meredith Matone, Director, MatoneM@chop.edu

Dr. Tanisha Belton, Program Manager, BeltonT@chop.edu

Dr. Jennifer Whittaker, Training Lead, WhittakerJ@chop.edu

Year 2 Awardees

Joint Pilot Grant Awards

Building Communication Strategies Among Black Fathers and Their Youth: A Pilot Study to Develop and Disseminate Strength-based Parent-Teen Resources


Partnership: 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.

Project description: The team plans to examine the barriers and facilitators for Black fathers’ communication with their teens (ages 12-17) about coping strategies for discrimination, racism, and mental health needs via focus groups and survey administration. They will then use these findings to develop and test the effectiveness of a parenting intervention for Black fathers in Philadelphia.

Adaptation of the Students Talking About Relationships (STAR) Curriculum for LGBTQI Youth


Partnership: 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

Project description: The team seeks to address interpersonal violence among LGBTQI adolescents and young adults through the application of the ADAPT framework to modify and test the evidence-based intervention, Students Talking About Relationships, using implementation and qualitative research methods. This award is sponsored in partnership with the CHOP Clinical and Translational Research Award (CTSA) program. The mission of the CHOP CTSA is to provide resources, environment, operations, and training to support and promote high-quality clinical and translational research.

A Multimodal Approach to Exploring the Adultification of Black Girls and the Building of Community-Centered Dissemination of Findings


Partnership: 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

Project description: The team aims to understand the impact of adultification on the medical and mental health outcomes of adolescents in an urban setting. More specifically, they will gather youth and their families' perspectives utilizing semi-structured qualitative interviews and innovative qualitative arts-based methods, such as photo-elicitation exercises, to identify the current experiences and potential solutions.

Partnership Development Award

Community Guided Development of an Interprofessional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Equity Champion Team and Bias Mitigation Strategies


Partnership: Diana Montoya-Williams, MD, MSHP, PolicyLab member from CHOP’s Division of Neonatology, and Jenné Johns, MPH, from Once Upon a Preemie, Inc.

Project description: The team aims to form a community- and family-engaged, interdisciplinary team of ‘NICU Equity Champions’ who will collaboratively build a multi-institutional research agenda focused on mitigating the impact of implicit bias and racism in the CHOP and Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania NICUs.

Year 1 Awardees

Joint Pilot Grant Awards

Defining and Implementing Trauma-Informed Approaches: Bridging the Academic-Community Divide to Support Community-based, Youth Serving Programs


Partnership: Rachel Myers, PhD, MS, from the Center for Injury Research and Prevention (CIRP) at CHOP and the Center for Violence Prevention (CVP) at CHOP, and Ronna Kassel from Christian Street YMCA

Project description: The team will support, implement, sustain, and evaluate the impact of trauma-informed approaches within 16 branches of the Greater Philadelphia YMCA. Overall, this project will specifically address how to create competence and confidence among program staff to deliver community-based programming in trauma-informed ways.

Partnership Development Awards

Strengthening Partnerships to Elevate Home Visiting Community Voice


Partnership: Tara Dechert, MS, from PolicyLab, and Shukriyyah Mitchell, BSN, RN, from the National Nurse-Led Care Consortium

Project description: The team will build a parent and family advisory council that would ensure the community of home-visited clients’ voices are incorporated in all implementation efforts including recruitment and outreach efforts, and research and quality improvement. From this work, their goal is to develop pathways that can be replicated across systems and organizations to allow clients and the home visiting community to lead and partake in future research and decision-making processes.

A Multimodal Approach to Exploring the Adultification of Black Girls and its Impact on Medical and Mental Health Outcomes


Partnership: Daniela Brissett, MD, and Nadia Dowshen, MD, MSHP, PolicyLab members from the Craig Dalsimer Division of Adolescent Medicine at CHOP, and Tawanna Jones, EdD, from we R.E.I.G.N.: Rooting, Empowering, and Inspiring a Girl’s Nation

Project description: The team will explore, through personal narratives, the lived experiences of adolescent youth who identify as Black and female aged 13-25. They hope this project will create a better understanding of how Black girls respond to institutional stereotypes but also to examine existing resilience skills used in their everyday lives.

A Collaborative Approach to Building a Menstrual Hygiene Product Distribution Site Within a Pediatric Hospital-based Food Pharmacy


Partnership: Shelby Davies, MD, PolicyLab member from the Craig-Dalsimer Division of Adolescent Medicine at CHOP, and Lynette Medley, MEd, from No More Secrets Mind Body Spirit (MBS) Inc. and the SPOT Period

Project description: The team will create a research partnership infrastructure between CHOP’s Division of Adolescent Medicine at CHOP, The Food Pharmacy at CHOP, and No More Secrets MBS Inc. and The SPOT Period. This first-of-its-kind partnership will aim to better understand the relationship between food insecurity and period poverty as a means for developing a menstrual product distribution program within a food pharmacy, which is a food bank and education center aiming to reduce hunger and improve health by making nutritious foods readily available to patients and their families.

Resources

About the 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 mechanisms, the program promotes capacity-building at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) for community-academic partnered research and the conduct of translational research using best practice in community-engaged research methods, while supporting the next generation of health equity researchers.  

Two grant mechanisms are available in this program: 

  • Partnership Development Awards provide seed funding to support activities related to the development of new or emerging community-academic research partnerships. Partnership Development Awards will be supported for a maximum of $7,000 for one year. 
  • 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. Joint Pilot Project Awards will be supported for a maximum of $40,000 for up to two years. 

We are excited to announce that PolicyLab was joined in support this year with partnerships from the CHOP Cancer Center, the Health Equity Research Methods (HERMes) Initiative, and the CHOP Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA). We thank our partners for their support and commitment to advancing the health and well-being of the communities we serve.

How to Apply

The application period is now closed. 

Program Contacts

Dr. Meredith Matone, Director, MatoneM@chop.edu

Dr. Tanisha Belton, Program Manager, BeltonT@chop.edu

Dr. Jennifer Whittaker, Training Lead, WhittakerJ@chop.edu

Year 2 Awardees

Joint Pilot Grant Awards

Building Communication Strategies Among Black Fathers and Their Youth: A Pilot Study to Develop and Disseminate Strength-based Parent-Teen Resources


Partnership: 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.

Project description: The team plans to examine the barriers and facilitators for Black fathers’ communication with their teens (ages 12-17) about coping strategies for discrimination, racism, and mental health needs via focus groups and survey administration. They will then use these findings to develop and test the effectiveness of a parenting intervention for Black fathers in Philadelphia.

Adaptation of the Students Talking About Relationships (STAR) Curriculum for LGBTQI Youth


Partnership: 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

Project description: The team seeks to address interpersonal violence among LGBTQI adolescents and young adults through the application of the ADAPT framework to modify and test the evidence-based intervention, Students Talking About Relationships, using implementation and qualitative research methods. This award is sponsored in partnership with the CHOP Clinical and Translational Research Award (CTSA) program. The mission of the CHOP CTSA is to provide resources, environment, operations, and training to support and promote high-quality clinical and translational research.

A Multimodal Approach to Exploring the Adultification of Black Girls and the Building of Community-Centered Dissemination of Findings


Partnership: 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

Project description: The team aims to understand the impact of adultification on the medical and mental health outcomes of adolescents in an urban setting. More specifically, they will gather youth and their families' perspectives utilizing semi-structured qualitative interviews and innovative qualitative arts-based methods, such as photo-elicitation exercises, to identify the current experiences and potential solutions.

Partnership Development Award

Community Guided Development of an Interprofessional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Equity Champion Team and Bias Mitigation Strategies


Partnership: Diana Montoya-Williams, MD, MSHP, PolicyLab member from CHOP’s Division of Neonatology, and Jenné Johns, MPH, from Once Upon a Preemie, Inc.

Project description: The team aims to form a community- and family-engaged, interdisciplinary team of ‘NICU Equity Champions’ who will collaboratively build a multi-institutional research agenda focused on mitigating the impact of implicit bias and racism in the CHOP and Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania NICUs.

Year 1 Awardees

Joint Pilot Grant Awards

Defining and Implementing Trauma-Informed Approaches: Bridging the Academic-Community Divide to Support Community-based, Youth Serving Programs


Partnership: Rachel Myers, PhD, MS, from the Center for Injury Research and Prevention (CIRP) at CHOP and the Center for Violence Prevention (CVP) at CHOP, and Ronna Kassel from Christian Street YMCA

Project description: The team will support, implement, sustain, and evaluate the impact of trauma-informed approaches within 16 branches of the Greater Philadelphia YMCA. Overall, this project will specifically address how to create competence and confidence among program staff to deliver community-based programming in trauma-informed ways.

Partnership Development Awards

Strengthening Partnerships to Elevate Home Visiting Community Voice


Partnership: Tara Dechert, MS, from PolicyLab, and Shukriyyah Mitchell, BSN, RN, from the National Nurse-Led Care Consortium

Project description: The team will build a parent and family advisory council that would ensure the community of home-visited clients’ voices are incorporated in all implementation efforts including recruitment and outreach efforts, and research and quality improvement. From this work, their goal is to develop pathways that can be replicated across systems and organizations to allow clients and the home visiting community to lead and partake in future research and decision-making processes.

A Multimodal Approach to Exploring the Adultification of Black Girls and its Impact on Medical and Mental Health Outcomes


Partnership: Daniela Brissett, MD, and Nadia Dowshen, MD, MSHP, PolicyLab members from the Craig Dalsimer Division of Adolescent Medicine at CHOP, and Tawanna Jones, EdD, from we R.E.I.G.N.: Rooting, Empowering, and Inspiring a Girl’s Nation

Project description: The team will explore, through personal narratives, the lived experiences of adolescent youth who identify as Black and female aged 13-25. They hope this project will create a better understanding of how Black girls respond to institutional stereotypes but also to examine existing resilience skills used in their everyday lives.

A Collaborative Approach to Building a Menstrual Hygiene Product Distribution Site Within a Pediatric Hospital-based Food Pharmacy


Partnership: Shelby Davies, MD, PolicyLab member from the Craig-Dalsimer Division of Adolescent Medicine at CHOP, and Lynette Medley, MEd, from No More Secrets Mind Body Spirit (MBS) Inc. and the SPOT Period

Project description: The team will create a research partnership infrastructure between CHOP’s Division of Adolescent Medicine at CHOP, The Food Pharmacy at CHOP, and No More Secrets MBS Inc. and The SPOT Period. This first-of-its-kind partnership will aim to better understand the relationship between food insecurity and period poverty as a means for developing a menstrual product distribution program within a food pharmacy, which is a food bank and education center aiming to reduce hunger and improve health by making nutritious foods readily available to patients and their families.

Resources