Eastern Nebraska Community Action Partnership (ENCAP), Community Needs Assessment: Douglas and Sarpy Counties

The mission of ENCAP is “to eliminate the causes of poverty by strengthening individuals, families, and communities through self-sufficiency initiatives in Douglas and Sarpy counties.” As shown in the logic model below, ENCAP currently provides behavioral health, nutrition, family development, and transportation services. The logic model shows outputs and short-term outcomes as expected results of providing these services, as well as the resources needed to accomplish these outcomes. Serving people at 125% of the poverty line and below, ENCAP’s long-term outcomes are to assist individuals and families in achieving economic security, having improved mental health, increased access to food, having strong intergenerational connections, and improving their communities. Also shown below is a brief description of current services, including the number of staff and volunteers, and the target population. The logic model can be utilized as a guide for selecting measurement tools and engaging in data collection, analysis, and reporting. STEPs has provided preliminary guidance for moving in this direction, and stands ready to assist

Greater Omaha Chamber: 2017 Diversity and Talent Inclusion Study Final Report

Description of Respondents: The primary objective of this project was to hear from Black YPs in Greater Omaha. The efforts to achieve an adequately sized sample of Black YPs was generally successful. Of the 675 useable respondents, their racial/ethnic identities were White/Caucasian (n=399, or 59%), Black/African American (n=181 or 27%) and Hispanic/Latino n=32 or 5%). Retention: Omaha has been successful in attracting YP’s – of the survey respondents, 48% moved to Greater Omaha from somewhere else and another 19% came back to Omaha after living elsewhere. Retention is a greater challenge, as 80% of the surveyed YPs would choose to live elsewhere. The retention challenge is even greater when broken out by race/ethnicity – 87% of Black YPs surveyed would choose to live elsewhere. Fortunately, there is an important difference between choosing to live elsewhere and actually moving elsewhere. When asked if respondents intend to be living in Omaha in the next five years, only 15% of YPs said no. More Black YPs do not intend to be living in Omaha in five years (23%). Sense of Community: Black young professionals think it is important to feel part of the community, yet on each of the six related questions, they feel less connected than other YPs:• Feeling connected to Omaha (44% vs. 62%); and • Greater Omaha helps me fulfill my needs (43% vs. 67%). Lived Environment: What are those community attributes that matter to YPs? We asked three sets of questions – economic, social and physical – on two dimensions, importance and satisfaction. On each of these dimensions, we found sizeable gaps in responses based on race/ethnicity, particularly on the dimension of satisfaction; Black young professionals are generally less satisfied than other YPs.• Economic Aspects: local job opportunities and cost of living were most important to respondents and the gaps in satisfaction, based on race/ethnicity, were most noticeable. Black YPs were noticeably from other YPs in the following areas: - Availability of job opportunities (59% vs 80%); - Average income (46% vs. 66%); - Range of industries (53% vs. 70%); and - Affordable housing (54% vs. 69%).• Physical Aspects: the most important finding had to do with public schools. While nearly all respondents rated public schools as important, only 36% of Black young professionals were satisfied with public schools in Great Omaha (compared to 58% of other YPs). Black YPs were also 5 less satisfied with the quality of trails/bike paths (46% vs. 55%) but more satisfied with the availability of public transportation (31% vs. 12%).• Social Aspects: the importance of neighborhood friendliness and feeling safe were rated high by all YPs. The importance of neighborhood diversity varied based on race/ethnicity: 92% of Black young professionals rated diversity important compared to 76% of other YPs. Black young professionals were consistently less satisfied with: - Local arts and music (51% vs. 75%);- Friendliness of neighbors (57% vs. 80%); - Recreational opportunities (46% vs. 61%); and - Diversity of local residents (33% vs. 46%). Workplace: In the workplace, similar disparities were found based on race/ethnicity. Several responses to questions are highlighted: • Black young professionals are: - More frequently feeling overqualified (36% vs. 24%), are - Less frequently satisfied with their salary based on education and experience (39% vs 55%), and are - Less frequently satisfied with their current position (64% vs. 78%). • Black young professionals are less confident they have an equal opportunity to be hired in Greater Omaha (49% vs. 76%) and are less confident they have an equal opportunity for promotion or advancement (43% vs. 67%). • Fewer Black young professionals reported having a professional mentor than did other YPs (57% vs. 70%). • On the positive side, many respondents were satisfied with opportunities for professional development and there were only modest differences based on race/ethnicity

The Association Between HIV-Related Stigma and HIV Outcomes: An Integrative Review

https://digitalcommons.unmc.edu/emet_posters/1032/thumbnail.jp

Urban American Indian Community Health Beliefs Associated with Addressing Cancer in the Northern Plains Region

American Indians residing in the Northern Plains region of the Indian Health Service experience some of the most severe cancer-related health disparities. We investigated ways in which the community climate among an American Indian population in an urban community in the Northern Plains region influences community readiness to address cancer. A Community Readiness Assessment, following the Community Readiness Model, conducted semi-structured interviews with eight educators, eight students, and eight community leaders from the American Indian community in Omaha’s urban American Indian population and established the Northern Plains region community at a low level of readiness to address cancer. This study reports on a subsequent qualitative study that analyzed all 24 interview transcriptions for emergent themes to help understand the prevailing attitude of the community toward cancer. A synthesis of six emergent themes revealed that the community’s perceptions of high levels of severity and barriers, paired with perceptions of low levels of susceptibility and benefits, lead to low levels of self-efficacy, all of which are reflected in minimal cues to action and little effort to address cancer. These findings, interpreted through the lens of the Health Belief Model, can inform the development of more community-based, comprehensive, and culturally appropriate approaches to address the multilevel determinants of health behaviors in relation to cancer among American Indians in the Northern Plains region

The Association Between Depressive Symptoms and Accumulation of Stress Among Black Men in the Health and Retirement Study

Background and Objectives: Among the multiple factors posited to drive the health inequities that black men experience, the fundamental role of stress in the production of poor health is a key component. Allostatic load (AL) is considered to be a byproduct of stressors related to cumulative disadvantage. Exposure to chronic stress is associated with poorer mental health including depressive symptoms. Few studies have investigated how AL contributes to depressive symptoms among black men. The purpose of the cross-sectional study was to examine the association between AL and depressive symptoms among middle- to old age black men. Research Design and Methods: This project used the 2010 and 2012 wave of the Health and Retirement Study enhanced face-to-face interview that included a biomarker assessment and psychosocial questionnaire. Depressive symptoms, assessed by the endorsement of 3 or more symptoms on the Center for Epidemiological Studies—Depression 8-item scale, was the outcome variable. The main independent variable, AL, score was calculated by summing the number values that were in the high range for that particular biomarker value scores ranging from 0 to 7. black men whose AL score was 3 or greater were considered to be in the high AL group. Modified Poisson regression was used to estimate prevalence ratios (PRs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: There was a larger proportion of black men in the high AL group who reported depressive symptoms (30.0% vs.20.0%) compared with black men in the low AL group. After adjusting for age, education, income, drinking, and smoking status, the prevalence of reporting 3 or more depressive symptoms was statistically significant among black men in the high AL group (PR = 1.61 [95% CI: 1.20–2.17]) than black men in the low AL group. Discussion and Implications: Exposure to chronic stress is related to reporting 3 or more depressive symptoms among black men after controlling for potential confounders. Improving the social and economic conditions for which black men work, play, and pray is key to reducing stress, thereby potentially leading to the reporting of fewer depressive symptoms

A Community-Academic Partnered Grant Writing Series to Build Infrastructure for Partnered Research.

Grant writing is an essential skill necessary to secure financial support for community programs and research projects. Increasingly, funding opportunities for translational biomedical research require studies to engage community partners, patients, or other stakeholders in the research process to address their concerns. However, there is little evidence on strategies to prepare teams of academic and community partners to collaborate on grants. This paper presents the description and formative evaluation of a two-part community-academic partnered grant writing series designed to help community organizations and academic institutions build infrastructure for collaborative research projects using a partnered approach. The first phase of the series was a half-day workshop on grant readiness, which was open to all interested community partners. The second phase, open only to community-academic teams that met eligibility criteria, was a 12-week session that covered partnered grant writing for foundation grants and National Institutes of Health grants. Participants in both phases reported an increase in knowledge and self-efficacy for writing partnered proposals. At 1-year follow-up, participants in Phase 2 had secured approximately $1.87 million in funding. This community-academic partnered grant writing series helped participants obtain proposal development skills and helped community-academic teams successfully compete for funding

A Walk in Two Worlds: An Indigenous Health Research Mentorship Model Developed from the Experiences of Mentors and Mentees in a Cancer Research Education Program Aimed at Increasing Representation of American Indians/Alaska Natives in Cancer Research and Healthcare Professions

The National Cancer Institute promotes workforce development programs that aim to increase representation of American Indian/Alaska Natives in health science and research careers. One such program, Youth Enjoy Science at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, has employed American Indian/Alaska Native youth in mentored cancer research internships from 2017 to 2022. The primary purpose of this study was to examine mentor and mentee experiences of participation in Youth Enjoy Science research education internships to learn from their stories. We conducted semi-structured interviews with current and former Youth Enjoy Science mentees (n=8) and mentors (n=8). We analyzed and collectively re-storied the data into narrative form based on emergent themes. We propose a conceptual model of Indigenous health research mentorship that recognizes inclusivity and mutuality as primary values of mentorship, with diversity and cultural humility as indicators of inclusivity, and resilience and trust as indicators of mutuality. Although this new model holds exciting implications for increasing Indigenous representation in health research, the model should be further studied and empirically validated