Community Partnerships

The Community-Engaged Research Program partners with communities to improve patient care and health for all people. The program fosters effective, long-term community partnerships through the core principles of justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, respect and trust. The following are highlights from this collaborative research from across all Mayo Clinic locations.

• Rochester Healthy Community Partnership (RHCP). Mayo researchers and community members are working together to reduce health disparities among immigrants and refugees in Minnesota.

  The RHCP and community members established a COVID Task Force to address COVID-19 prevention, testing and socioeconomic impacts. Through the application of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication framework, they established bidirectional communication between communication leaders and community members within their social networks to refine messages, leverage resources and advise policymakers. Over 14 days, messages were delivered by 24 communication leaders in six languages across nine electronic platforms to 9,882 individuals within their networks, demonstrating the implementation of the community engagement research partnership to effectively implement crisis and emergency risk communication to vulnerable populations in a pandemic. Read more.

• Fostering African American Improvement in Total Health (FAITH!). This program partners with Black churches to create culturally tailored programs to promote health.

  Underserved and minority populations in the United States have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is partially attributable to limited access to diagnostic testing from deeply rooted structural inequities precipitating higher infection and mortality rates. Through the established academic-community partnership between a medical institution and a federally qualified health center in Minnesota, a process for a drive-through test collection site was established. Over 10 weeks, 2,006 COVID-19 tests were provided to a socioeconomically disadvantaged population of racial and ethnic minorities and low-income essential workers. Read more.

• Wellness Rx. This program seeks to improve overall wellness of residents in Black and Latino communities in Jacksonville, Florida.

  To address lack of healthy foods in these communities, Wellness Rx partnered with Feeding Northeast Florida to provide monthly grocery distribution. This monthly program continued during the pandemic.

• Hispanic Outreach and Patient Engagement en Español (HOPE2). This program uses a faith-driven model to address community identified health concerns among people in Latino communities in Northeast Florida.

  The Jax Saludable (Healthy Jacksonville) virtual health conference, held in July 2020, brought together more than 300 Latino leaders from northeastern Florida. The vision was to educate, inspire and organize leaders and the broader community to collaborate to improve health care access, processes and outcomes. Read more.

• Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities. This NIH-funded program promotes inclusive research addressing health disparities and the COVID-19 pandemic. Mayo Clinic is involved in active research partnerships in Arizona and Florida.

  On August 28, 2021, the National Forum on COVID-19 Vaccine sponsored the (Mis)trust in the COVID-19 Vaccine in the African American Community virtual town hall, which featured leading experts on health disparities and the COVID-19 pandemic including: Kizzmekia S. Corbett, Ph.D., Harvard; Pernessa C. Seale, Balm in Gilead Inc.; and LaPrincess C. Brewer, M.D., M.P.H., and Chyke A. Doubeni, M.B.B.S., M.P.H., Mayo Clinic.

• Center for Chronic Disease Reduction and Equity Promotion Across Minnesota (C2DREAM). This new research center will address the effects of racism on cardiovascular health disparities in Minnesota. A joint effort with University of Minnesota, the program was launched in October 2021.