Nov. 20, 2015 | Twenty-five community groups were honored Nov. 13 for their contributions to research at the 3rd annual Community Partner Celebration sponsored by the UAMS Translational Research Institute (TRI).
The celebration, at the Center at University Park in Little Rock, included welcome remarks from TRI Director Laura James, M.D., and UAMS Chancellor Dan Rahn, M.D. The keynote speaker was Kathryn Hall-Trujillo, M.P.H., founder of the Birthing Project USA, which began as a community project to assist pregnant women and has been replicated in other countries.
The key message to the 88 attendees representing 21 grassroots community organizations and four advisory boards, was how important their work is to finding solutions to society’s most challenging health problems.
Rahn noted that Arkansas ranks at or near the bottom on virtually every key measure of health. No matter how much knowledge there is about obesity, diabetes or cancer deaths, he said, it is of no value without new, innovative approaches to improving health.
“If we keep doing what we’ve been doing we’ll get what we already got,” Rahn said.
“The future hinges on some new ways of thinking and developing new knowledge and new methodologies to actually change the future,” he added. “That’s what you can help us with. We thank you for doing this, we thank you for partnering with us. We truly need our partners to help us chart a course for a healthier tomorrow.”
James said the perspective of UAMS’ grassroots partners is key.
“We need to interact with our community partners, and we need to partner with you to do research that is the most meaningful to Arkansans,” James said. “What’s important about tonight is we are celebrating and thinking about how we can in partnership take scientific discoveries or new findings and push them into the homes and families and communities and churches out in the state to improve the health of our state.”
Featured speaker Hall-Trujillo, an Arkansas native whose Birthing Project has become an international model for helping pregnant women, praised the work of the attendees. A key to the success of her project was realizing the need for communities to understand how important systems and resources work, such as university, medical, education, housing and legal systems.
“The resources we brought to the table were partnered with people who had resources,” Hall-Trujillo said. “What we need to do is be the best relationship builders, the best ambassadors and best liaisons for the families we support. I can see by looking at this room, that that is exactly what you’re doing, and I applaud you for doing it, and I can see a better place.”
The community organizations honored this year are:
- Arkansas Community Health Worker Association (ARCHWA)
- Arkansas Voices for the Children Left Behind
- Cisneros Center for New Americans
- Divine Deliverance
- East Arkansas Family Health Center
- El Zócalo Immigrant Resource Center
- First Baptist Dew Drop Church
- Hispanic Women’s Organization of Arkansas
- House of Benjamin
- Human Rights Campaign
- King’s Chapel
- Lee County Cooperative Clinic
- New Light MBC
- Oak Forest United Methodist Church
- Planting A Seed Foundation
- Pleasant View Ministries Church
- Regenerated Missionary Baptist Church
- Rural Community Alliance
- Seeds of Liberation
- Washington Regional Medical Center Employee Education Department
- Young Adult Opportunity Center
The community advisory boards honored this year are:
- Arkansas Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Task Force
- Thomas & Lyon Longevity Clinic Patient
- and Family Advisory Council
- TransForm Health Arkansas Research Working Group
- UAMS Hospital Patient and Family Advisory Council