Jemmott and Tan on Philly Team Awarded $1.4 Million NIH Grant to Expand COVID-19 Outreach
The team includes researchers from the Annenberg School, Penn Nursing, Penn Medicine, the City of Philadelphia Department of Public Health, and Philly Counts.
Photo Credit: Alejandro Barba / Unsplash
Annenberg School professors John Jemmott and Andy Tan are part of a collaboration that received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to extend the reach of the NIH’s Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities. The Philly CEAL team, led by Penn Nursing faculty José A. Bauermeister and Antonia M. Villarruel, was awarded $1.4 million from the NIH with additional support from Penn Nursing and the University of Pennsylvania, bringing the total for the alliance to $1.53 million.
“The toll of the pandemic among racial/ethnic populations in Philadelphia cannot be understated. Alongside the stark morbidity and mortality COVID-19 estimates reported by the city, racial/ethnic minorities in Philadelphia have also been most likely to experience job loss, income reduction, and decreased access to social resources,” said Bauermeister, the Albert M. Greenfield Professor of Human Relations and Chair of the Department of Family & Community Health at Penn Nursing. “As a result, we have witnessed deepening health inequities in our communities. The Philadelphia CEAL project is an opportunity to coordinate evidence-based planning efforts to address COVID-19 inequities in Philadelphia.”
CEAL’s mission is to create a multisectoral coalition in Philadelphia focused on identifying opportunities and evaluating on-going COVID-19 strategies to mitigate disparities across COVID-19 testing, vaccine uptake, and therapeutics. Together, the Philly CEAL team will propose and evaluate strategies that meet the needs of people hardest-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, including African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, Asian Americans, and American Indians/Alaska Natives, with the goal of building long-lasting partnerships as well as improving diversity and inclusion in our research response to COVID-19.
“We are excited to be working with the City of Philadelphia Public Health Department, Philly Counts, our partners across Penn including Penn Medicine and the Annenberg School for Communication, and community members,” said Villarruel, Penn Nursing Professor and Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing. “We will work to synergize efforts to address the disproportionate impact of COVID 19 on underserved communities.”
Over the next year, CEAL researchers will work with community leaders, trusted organizations, and experts familiar to diverse communities across Philadelphia to strengthen a local response to COVID-19. Philly Counts will help provide materials and support to the grantees to ensure the greatest impact on communities. As teams within the CEAL Alliance personalize these outreach strategies, they will also share their findings with each other and the broader community of those working to move the country past the pandemic.
Using collected data from Philadelphia residents, city epidemiologic data and trends, and feedback from communities, the Philly CEAL team will propose programs that align with the needs of the community, synergize existing efforts across the city, and evaluate new COVID-19 initiatives as they are rolled out in Philadelphia.
In alignment with the City’s goal to vaccinate Philadelphians against COVID-19, the Philly CEAL coalition’ efforts will facilitate access to COVID-19 testing and vaccines, as well as promote participation in COVID-19 therapeutic trials among underserved communities in the region.
“I am excited to join the interdisciplinary and dynamic Philly CEAL team,” says Tan. “A key component of the work focuses on community engagement for research and outreach. This is directly aligned with my research on understanding communication inequalities and health inequities among vulnerable populations and developing culturally responsive communication interventions to achieve health equity. I look forward to contributing my expertise to lead the creation and dissemination of communications using diverse media including social, video, and print media, and to design and evaluate the Philly CEAL team’s communication and outreach strategies.”
CEAL is an NIH-wide effort co-led by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).
Media Contact
Ed Federico
215.746.3562
efed@nursing.upenn.edu
