CEREQ conference addresses health equity in income-based housing
The Community-Engaged Research and Equity Initiative (CEREQ) recently hosted a pioneering conference, “Improving Health Equity in Income-Based Housing: A Community-Informed Research Agenda.”
The two-day event, held June 12-13 in Waitzer Hall, was funded by a $50,000 grant from the ONE (ODU, NSU and EVMS) School of Public Health initiative. It focused on developing the framework for a community-engaged research agenda that represents a 360-degree assessment of the opportunities and barriers around health equity needs and concerns in low-income communities. CEREQ is a new multi-institutional network of community-engaged research scholars developed to promote and support community-engaged research and scholarship development.
The conference was led by Glenn Yap, PhD, Associate Professor in the School of Health Professions and Program Director for the Master of Healthcare Administration; Andrew Plunk, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor of Pediatrics; and Cynthia Burwell, EdD, Director of the Center of Excellence in Minority Health Disparities and Chair of the Department of Health, Physical Education and Exercise Science at Norfolk State University.
The event attracted 110 attendees and brought together scholar-scientists from EVMS, NSU, Virginia Commonwealth University, Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters, Washington University in St. Louis, Temple University, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, University of Nebraska Omaha; representatives from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD); six local and regional redevelopment and housing authorities (VCHAAP); and members of two layperson advisory boards — the Hampton Roads Community Collaborative (HRCC) and the Community Advisory Board (CAB).
Feedback from the conference was highly positive, with attendees in agreement that the event should be held yearly, noting that the “candor of the CAB members in sharing their lived experiences was eye-opening, inspiring, and thought-provoking. The conference was a great platform for building trust and collaboration.”
CEREQ is a new multi-institutional network of community-engaged research scholars developed to promote and support community-engaged research and scholarship development. Funded by the Sentara-EVMS Joint Research Affiliation Fund, CEREQ is housed within the Community Health and Research division of EVMS Pediatrics and led by Dr. Plunk and Kelli England, PhD (Clinical Psychology Residency '06), Professor of Pediatrics.
The mission of CEREQ is to build sustainable research infrastructure — people, processes, and systems — and increase regional capacity for collaborative, community-engaged research. CEREQ can facilitate conversations with other researchers who are doing community-engaged work, identify potential collaborative partners with complementary skills, and help make participants’ research more community-engagement focused.
For more information, visit the CEREQ webpage or call 757.446.7472.