The UAMS Translational Research Institute honored UAMS’ many Arkansas community partners Nov. 17 with its fifth annual Community Partner Celebration.
During the event at the Centre at University Park in Little Rock, the Phillips and Jefferson Counties Faith Task Force, led by pastors Johnny Smith and Jerome Turner, received the Chancellor’s Community Research Partner Award. The task force is using a faith-based intervention study with UAMS to prevent depression and promote emotional wellness in the Arkansas Delta.
The award, which focuses on partnerships that involve research, was presented by interim UAMS Chancellor Stephanie Gardner, Pharm.D., Ed.D.
Nominees for the Chancellor’s Award also included Ashley County Cares and the Arkansas Birthing Project.
“I enjoyed reading the applications for these,” Gardner said during her keynote address to about 150 attendees at the Centre at University Park in Little Rock. “In my book they were all winners.”
Other awards/winners:
- The Community Based Organization of the Year: Samaritan Community Center
The center aids underserved populations in the Rogers area through community garden development, pantries, community meal programs, snack pack program, resale shops, and social and dental services. - Community Advisory Board of the Year: Northwest Arkansas Marshallese Community Health Advisory Board
The board provides significant direction and consultation to the UAMS Office of Community Health and Research via active involvement with community based participatory approaches related to diabetes self-management education, diabetes prevention programs, physical activity, medication adherence, and the translation of health materials and health survey instruments. - Community Partnership Student: Steven Keller
Keller devoted his time to a student project working with a research team to develop home exercise programs for Marshallese community health workers. This project allowed the community health workers to teach exercise to the Marshallese population. - Institutional Health Partner Award: University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service
Since 2010, the Clinton School has awarded five practicum teams, groups of students who spend two semesters completing a project directly related to the work of an organization, to the Access to Healthy Foods Research Group at the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute. The students completed work and provided the research group with deliverables that the team would not have had time to do.
“It’s just a joy to know so many people across our state are engaged in this effort of trying to make our communities healthier,” Gardner said. “It’s a celebration of the extraordinary service that non-UAMS organizations provide to UAMS.”
