Project Leadership
Equity Center: Sherica Jones-Lewis, Karen Waters-Wicks
University Partners: David Edmunds, Rupa Valdez, Laura Goldblatt
Community Partners: Public Housing Association or Residents, City of Charlottesville Office of Human Rights, Dr. William Harris, Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority
Shelby Marie Edwards (previous PHAR Executive Director) and Cecelia Barber (R3's first Coordinator) in PHAR’s office
Overview: The Equity Center has worked with Public Housing Association of Residents (PHAR) in order to establish R3 Residents for Respectful Research (formerly CRRB - Community Research Review Board). This board operates as a community-led companion to UVA’s Institutional Review Board (IRB), forming a mutually beneficial partnership where community participation prevents research projects from exploiting low-wealth residents and ensures that the research conducted is beneficial to the community. Additionally, R3 strives to make research knowledge accessible to the public through the adaptation of educational materials designed for researchers.
Highlights: During the next three years, the R3 will continue the work it has begun together with IRB members to establish a prototype model designed to protect the safety and welfare of low-wealth housing residents in the region. The R3 program will also include development of a training component designed to facilitate completion of Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) training and build capacity for equitable partnership.In 2021, PHAR successfully onboarded a full-time R3 Coordinator, Cecilia Barber. Cecilia is working with the Equity Center and the Institutional Review Board for Social and Behavioral Sciences to coordinate the project’s logistics, while leading efforts to establish goals for the future. This team will be organizing programming for youth living in public housing, offering high school-and middle school-aged residents the opportunity to learn about research in their communities, and to engage their community members inconversations about their wants, needs, and concerns regarding research. The youth involved will be fairly compensated for their time and efforts, while learning valuable skills about activism and community engagement, and expanding their knowledge of research and its effects on their community members. Their outreach will set the stage for genuine conversations about the community’s experiences with research.RRR is preparing to begin the search for three Resident Reviewers who will be trained to analyzeresearch proposals, provide feedback regarding proposed projects, and engage with both community members and researchers to help build trust between them. Reviewers will gain valuable, transferable knowledge of the formal research process, and will be valued for their expertise within the community. The major progress this previous year came as a result of prioritizing outreach efforts and hiring, with the goal of informing the community at large of the program’s existence and increasing its reach.
Reports and Publications:
A Qualitative Evaluation of the Creation and Implementation of PHAR’s CRRB Powerpoint by Avery Leigh Bullock
Rupa S Valdez, Don E Detmer, Philip Bourne, Katherine K Kim, Robin Austin, Anna McCollister, Courtney C Rogers, Karen C Waters-Wicks, Informatics-enabled citizen science to advance health equity, Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 2021, ocab088, https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocab088 https://academic.oup.com/jamia/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/jamia/ocab088/6307177
Updates: