Furman, LiveWell Greenville receive $5 million grant to improve community health research

Furman University and LiveWell Greenville have received a five-year, $5 million grant from the American Heart Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to advance community health research.

Members of LiveWell’s HEAL Board. The grant will enable the board to expand, placing Greenville at the forefront of shaping health research and policy while serving as a model for  communities across the country.

The grant will fund research aimed at increasing community input in health care issues, with the goal of lowering the rates of chronic diseases and mortality in communities facing disparities. The grant will also provide post-doctoral training of health professionals to carry on the work. One result of the project will be a roadmap that other cities can use for approaching community-based participatory research and how to involve citizens in policy decisions that affect their health, from the availability of transportation to housing and food access. ­

The research is part of a $20 million initiative called the Health Equity Research Network (HERN) on Community-Driven Research Approaches announced today by the American Heart Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Furman is one of only three universities chosen to participate as a partner hub in the network, alongside Yale University and the University of California-San Diego. The University of Texas at San Antonio Health Science Center will serve as a community engagement resource center for the network.

“This grant will give us the opportunity to create a new approach to eliminating health disparities, by getting the people in the community more involved in the research process and in processes that impact their health,” said Melissa Fair, community action director in the Institute for the Advancement of Community Health (IACH). Fair will co-direct the grant with Sally Wills, executive director of LiveWell Greenville.

“The grant from the American Heart Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation puts Greenville at the center of a very important research question that not only affects our community, but communities across the country,” said Wills. “We’re excited to work even more deeply with our community members, and our friends at Furman, to address this crucial issue.”

Strong ties between Furman’s IACH and LiveWell Greenville gave the organizations an advantage over other groups that competed for the grant, Fair said. “LiveWell is an outstanding partner to work with, and they have excellent relationships with community organizations that, I’m sure, made our proposal stand above the rest,” she said.

The Furman IACH-LiveWell project includes two research initiatives. The first will work in communities of color across South Carolina to understand perceptions of individual and collective power when it comes to local government decision making. Researchers will also explore how local policies and practices influenced by systemic inequities contribute to disparities in health outcomes. Despite significant interventions to reduce health disparities, people of color still have higher rates of chronic diseases, cancers and higher rates of death from disease.

The second research initiative will create a community research advisory board using public health methods to create a model for training and engaging community members so they have a voice in the research process. This will require nationwide research into other community-based participatory research, and identifying ways to improve methods that lead to better community outcomes.

In the third year of the grant, the team will launch a training program for community-based research. This program will recruit six post-doctoral fellows who have completed their degree in fields such as public health or medicine. Community members and partners will also be encouraged to participate in training opportunities alongside the fellows. The training will be housed at Furman, but Clemson University, which has a long-established doctoral training program, will be closely involved. Faculty and professionals from Furman, LiveWell, Clemson, Prisma Health and other partner institutions will provide mentorship and training in the program. The University of South Carolina Schools of Medicine Greenville and the USC Patient Engagement Studio will be partners in building a model for how community members are engaged in the research process.

For Furman, the grant provides the opportunity for undergraduate students to participate in research that’s usually reserved for graduate students. Such engaged learning is a hallmark of the university.

“We’re honored that the American Heart Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation chose us for this important public health research,” Fair said. “We are eager to start this important work.”