Chicago Community Research Articles

A measure of centrality in cyclic diffusion processes: Walk-betweenness.

Unlike many traditional measures of centrality based on paths that do not allow any repeated nodes or lines, we propose a new measure of centrality based on walks, walk-betweenness, that allows any number of repeated nodes or lines. To illustrate the value of walk-betweenness, we examine the transmission of syphilis in Chicago area and the diffusion of microfinance in 43 rural Indian villages. Walk-betweenness allows us to identify hidden bridging communities in Chicago that were essential in the transmission dynamics. We also find that village leaders with high walk-betweenness are more likely to accelerate the rate of microfinance take-up among their followers, outperforming other traditional centrality measures in regression analyses.

Ishtyle : Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife by Kareem Khubchandani

Reviewed by: Ishtyle : Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife by Kareem Khubchandani Sony Coráñez Bolton (bio) Ishtyle: Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife by Kareem Khubchandani. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2020. Xxiv + 262 pp. $34.95 paper. ISBN: 978-0-472-07421-1. Kareem Khubchandani's Ishtyle: Accenting Gay Indian Night Life is a performance studies ethnography centering the subcultural lives of queer South Asian (mostly) men in Bangalore and Chicago. Using an innovative form of participant observation that speaks to Khubchandani's positioning in these communities as a drag artist (whose nom de guerre is LaWhore Vagistan), he elicits spectacularly rich ethnographic descriptions that read against the presumed heteronormativity of "Bollywood tropes, narratives, and choreographies" (xiv) while also embracing the queer meanings that are inherent to them as they [End Page 507] play out Indian nightlife—indeed, "drag [is the] research method" (xiv). His is a refreshing study written with verve and rigor that should be widely read and embraced in Asian American and queer of color studies. Khubchandani defines "ishtyle" as a "form of vernacular performance" or "accented style" emerging in response to the social normalizations of multinational capitalism. Ishtyle "enables alternative affective, erotic, and social transactions by accenting the night with vernacular articulations of Indianness" (2). Such "accents" are so conceptually powerful because they "not only wield the performative force of history they have acquired in repetition to conjure gender, race, and class, but [also] their kinetic force physically 'punctures' space and time to bring bodies into new proximity and relation" (9). In other words, ishtyle is a repertoire of stylized acts, speech, and sartorial flair that forges queer community through its ontological difference from mainstream cultural formations shaped by Orientalism and white supremacy. At base, this is a book about subjectivity and agency—subjecthood that you cannot miss (and wouldn't want to) for how flamboyant, queer, jocular, witty, and irreverent it is. Chapters 1 and 2 focus on the politics of accented styles under respectability regimes in Bangalore. Chapter 1 analyzes the contradictory cultural impulses of Hindutva normativity that draw on British colonial antecedents and the anxieties around westernization under economic modernization. Chapter 2 takes up the unenviable though brilliantly ironic task of analyzing the politics of social dance under legal mandates in Bangalore outlawing it between 2006 and 2014. Chapter 3 speaks to the complicated politics of interracial desire centered on the Boystown "gayborhood" in Chicago. A centerpiece chapter of the study in general, it substantiates the overall claim that Indianness and its queer brownness are a performative node around which we can come to a more nuanced understanding of race, sexuality, nation, and desire not limited to South Asian diasporic subjects. I was struck by the attention given to the fungibility of brownness that causes misrecognitions between Latinx and Indian bodies—an interchangeability that was a welcome and profound contribution that exceeds the seemingly narrow parameters of "gay Indian nightlife." I found this so valuable because it provided a deep and powerful justification to foreground interracial encounter rather than perpetually affixing queer subject-making to a central signifying whiteness. Through vim, humor, and candor emblematic of an intellectually rigorous "ishtylized" ethnography, Khubchandani implores us to prioritize "axes of desire" that "center queer interracial intimacies" that displace the "sexual racism and unrequited desire from white men" (100). Sign me up. Chapter 4 speaks to the author's own grassroots efforts to build queer Desi community in Chicago through the serialized party Jai Ho! Here the analytical framing of ishtyle is extended to theorize its "capacity … to unsettle whiteness [End Page 508] and its accompanying Orientalism in gay nightlife" (111). While I do not doubt ishtyle's ability to potentiate such a critique, I was curious about a tendency to overly romanticize queer migrant cultures, particularly vis-à-vis settler colonialism. The author reflects on the "ability to emplace migrant subjects, not as settlers with possessive attachment to land but as performers who have permission to feel at home every once in a while" (111, emphasis mine). This opens up a productive conversation on the ways that queer migrant culture generally in settler colonial countries might present implicit and deeply structural contraventions to indigenous sovereignty. I wish...

The Lasting Impact of Housing Discrimination on Industrial Development, Environmental Injustice, and Land Use

Communities of color, specifically Black Americans, face environmental harms at a far greater rate than white communities. While recent efforts to address this disparity have increased as the Environmental Justice Movement becomes more mainstream, the issue is too deeply ingrained in America’s discriminatory housing and land use practices to be addressed separately from housing and land use discrimination. When the federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) spent the decade following the Great Depression creating and using color-coded maps of mortgage lending security, it further segregated communities of color and denied them access to federal lending and property ownership. To effect lasting change in environmental justice communities, legal advocates must recognize the intertwined nature of housing discrimination and environmental justice and address the issues accordingly. This paper aims to explore the lasting impact of these HOLC map designations on minority communities in Chicago, IL. Specifically, it aims to identify how these map designations have shaped industrial development siting and local land use decisions. By looking at one of America’s most segregated cities, this paper will analyze its history of housing discrimination and land use decision-making practices and suggest incorporating sustainable development and land use considerations into environmental legal advocacy.

COVID-19 Vaccine: Promoting Vaccine Acceptance.

COVID-19 Vaccine: Promoting Vaccine Acceptance.

Structural racism, socio-economic marginalization, and infant mortality

ObjectivesWe examine associations between infant mortality rates (IMRs) and measures of structural racism and socio-economic marginalization in Chicago, Illinois. Our purpose was to determine whether the Index of Concentration at the Extremes (ICE) was significantly related to community-level IMRs. Study designWe use a cross-sectional ecological public health design to examine community-level factors related to IMRs in Chicago neighborhoods. MethodsWe use data from the Chicago Department of Public Health and the American Community Survey to examine IMR inequities during the period 2012–2016. Calculations of the ICE for race and income were undertaken. In addition, we calculated racialized socio-economic status, which is the concentration of affluent Whites relative to poor Blacks in a community area. We present these ICE measures, as well as hardship, percent of births with inadequate prenatal care (PNC), and the percent of single-parent households as quintiles so that we can compare neighborhoods with the most disadvantage with neighborhoods with the least. Negative binomial regression was used to determine whether the ICE measures were independently related to community IMRs, net of hardship scores, PNC, and single-parent households. ResultsSpearman correlation results indicate significant associations in Chicago communities between measures of racial segregation and economic marginalization and IMRs. Community areas with the lowest ICERace scores (those with the largest concentrations of Black residents, compared with White) had IMRs that were 3.63 times higher than those communities with the largest concentrations of White residents. Most associations between community IMRS and measures of structural racism and socioeconomic marginalization are accounted for in fully adjusted negative binomial regression models. Only ICERace remained significantly related to IMRs. ConclusionsWe show that structural racism as represented by the ICE is independently related to IMRs in Chicago; community areas with the largest concentrations of Blacks residents compared with Whites are those with the highest IMRs. This relationship persists even after controlling for socio-economic marginalization, hardship, household composition/family support, and healthcare access. Interventions to improve birth outcomes must address structural determinants of health inequities.

Art for People's Sake: Artists and Community in Black Chicago, 1965–1975

Art for People's Sake: Artists and Community in Black Chicago, 1965–1975

Abstract 256: Outcome Prediction of Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest with Environmental Information Using Machine Learning

Background: The lethality of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) among minority and low income patients in large urban centers has been extensively described. Neighborhood disparities in OHCA survival outcomes cannot be fully explained by clinical variables alone. Machine Learning (ML) is a sub-field of Artificial Intelligence where algorithms can learn and improve themselves by studying high volumes of data and evaluating interactions that affect OHCA. We sought to determine whether incorporating neighborhood variables into a ML model of OHCA can increase its predictive accuracy of survival outcomes. Methods: Using OHCA data from the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES) database, we geocoded Chicago incidents that occurred outside of healthcare facilities and nursing homes from 2014 - 2019 into the 77 Chicago community areas. Neighborhood characteristics (e.g., access to healthcare, educational attainment, crime rates) were assigned to OHCA cases based on community area using publicly available data from the Chicago Health Atlas (CHA). The merged CARES and CHA data were used to train, validate, test, and analyze ML models for OHCA survival outcomes, defined as a binary outcome based on Cerebral Performance Category or CPC (Good = CPC 1 or 2; Poor=CPC 3, 4, or 5). ML models including deep neural networks were developed and compared using average class sensitivity to models developed using only CARES data. Results: ML algorithms were tested on 9,595 cases of OHCA. Baseline results using only CARES data on the Embedded Fully Convolutional Network (EFCN) show an average class sensitivity of 84%. Including neighborhood variables from the CHA dataset increased the average class sensitivity of the EFCN model to 86.5-86.9%. Conclusion: The use of neighborhood variables in combination with CARES data can predict neurologic outcomes with a higher level of accuracy than using CARES registry data alone. Future studies will use this newly developed model to perform simulation experiments to identify neighborhood level interventions to improve OHCA survival outcomes.

A Political Education: Black Politics and Education Reform in Chicago Since the 1960s

Reviewed by: A Political Education: Black Politics and Education Reform in Chicago since the 1960s by Elizabeth Todd-Breland Jillian Deas (bio) ELIZABETH TODD-BRELAND, A Political Education: Black Politics and Education Reform in Chicago since the 1960s. University of North Carolina Press, 2018. 344 pp. ISBN 9781469647173. Elizabeth Todd-Breland explores the history of Chicago schools to discuss the politics that impacted and influenced Black achievement and the power, resources, and representation that maintain controlling politics. According to Todd-Breland, desegregation is a strategy to acquire “educational equity and liberation” (p. 6), which shifts to community control as a strategy. The lack of consensus in Black Chicago communities regarding education led to the rise of community control as a tactic to improve the resources and programming that occurred within the Black communities dictated by local control. When the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, 1965) launched, many community organizers transitioned from grassroots protest and activism to community-support agencies due to newly available funding opportunities. The rise of racial pride through Black Power movements led to the recognition that “African-Centered education” (p. 85) was starkly missing from what [End Page 155] students were receiving, which led to parents transitioning their children to private educational institutions. Todd-Breland discusses Independent Black Institutions by presenting the question, “can we create or re-create the Afrikan mind in a pre- dominantly European-American setting?” This educational framework only impacted a small portion of the Black population in Chicago during the 1960s, as most students remained in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system. Harold Washington became Chicago’s first Black mayor in 1983, through the local political power possessed by Chicago Black teachers, who played a major role in his election. Accordingly, they exhibited heightened expectations of Washington to provide more equitable educational opportunities for Chicago’s teaching force and students. In the second section, Todd-Breland separates Chicago school reform and corporate school reform to analyze and consider the power, resources, and representation that impacted the Chicago education system. Centered on the rise of the first Black mayor of Chicago, Harold Washington seemed to introduce a new level of Black politics and achievement. By the close of Washington’s political career, education reform leaders were more interested in decentralizing schools to local control with the rise of corporate and private school reform. The rise of neoliberal ideology, private and school choice options, aimed to solve all the issues that parents, students, educators, and communities were concerned with, nonetheless, much of the interest in corporate reform was self-serving and motivated by the hope of making profits, which commodified students, particularly Black students. A strength of this book is the concurrent nature of the content. The grit and determination displayed by Chicago’s Black educators is displayed through their repeated strikes for better conditions for the students and themselves. Additionally, we are introduced to some key players in the teachers’ and community’s movement toward equitable educational opportunities, such as Rosie Simpson, Barbara Sizemore, Soyini Walton, Lillie Peoples, and Karen Lewis. Todd-Breland clarifies her hopes for Black women educators and the Black community and her purpose in pursuing this history in the introduction and then mutes many of her positions until the end of the book. This allows the reader to trust her objective analysis and the authenticity of the history being told. She lays out the facts as she found them through archives, oral histories (p. 23), other texts, and videos. Structurally, she intertwines the women presented, whether they were connected through shared experiences or ideologies. Prominent organizations and male activists are mentioned but are limited to their contributions or deviations from the movement; this helps keep the focus on the unwritten histories of these women. Todd-Breland discusses the middle-class focus held by the Chicago Urban League and the fact that they didn’t support the Black woman educator’s movement. This in-depth exploration was initially a strength, but this wasn’t maintained with the other entities she discusses. One area [End Page 156] that would have benefited from further exploration is Reverend Jesse Jackson’s background before coming to Chicago to organize Operation Breadbox (p. 116...

Asthma Knowledge and Behaviours among Parents of Asthmatic Children Attending Paediatric Hospitals in Mosul City

Background: Asthma is a common health problem among all age groups. It disturbs all aspects of children’slife and possibly changes to chronic disease that continues for the whole patient’s life. This research focusedattention on the parental knowledge and practices during and between asthmatic attacks in order to identifyimproper activities and improve their future performance toward their children.Objective: This research aims to demonstrate the degree of parental knowledge and behaviours toward theirchildren during and between asthmatic attacks in Mosul City.Method: A case series study was conducted among 312 parents of asthmatic children that attended Al-Khansaaand Ibn-Alatheer teaching hospitals (two major paediatric hospitals in Mosul City)over a period of 6 months.A questionnaire form derived from “the Arabic version of the Chicago Community Asthma SurveyQuestionnaire” was distributed among the participants to evaluate their demographic characteristics, myths,knowledge, and behaviours. Various rates and proportions are used to explain these variables.Results: This study shows that most parents got information from doctors (62.2%), their best knowledgewas about the precipitating factor for asthma as dust and smoke (78%) and the symptoms of asthma asdyspnoea (84.9%), while the least information were about the mechanism of disease where 26.9% did notknow the exact mechanism, and the complications of asthma as sudden death (25.3%). On the other hand,the best parental behaviour was the regular use of medications during and between attacks (88.5% and82.7%) and the lowest ones was performing breathing exercises (around 45%).Conclusion and Recommendation: A relatively adequate knowledge and behaviours were documented inthis study; however, further education about the recent guidelines for asthma management should be offeredto those parents in order to improve their offspring health and lifestyle.

Cohort profile: the ChicagO Multiethnic Prevention and Surveillance Study (COMPASS).

PurposeThe ChicagO Multiethnic Prevention and Surveillance Study or ‘COMPASS’ is a population-based cohort study with a goal to examine the risk and determinants of cancer and chronic disease. COMPASS aims to address factors causing and/or exacerbating health disparities using a precision health approach by recruiting diverse participants in Chicago, with an emphasis on those historically underrepresented in biomedical research.ParticipantsNearly 8000 participants have been recruited from 72 of the 77 Chicago community areas. Enrolment entails the completion of a 1-hour long survey, consenting for past and future medical records from all sources, the collection of clinical and physical measurement data and the on-site collection of biological samples including blood, urine and saliva. Indoor air monitoring data and stool samples are being collected from a subset of participants. On collection, all biological samples are processed and aliquoted within 24 hours before long-term storage and subsequent analysis.Findings to dateThe cohort reported an average age of 53.7 years, while 80.5% identified as African-American, 5.7% as Hispanic and 47.8% as men. Over 50% reported earning less than US$15 000 yearly, 35% were obese and 47.8% were current smokers. Moreover, 38% self-reported having had a diagnosis of hypertension, while 66.4% were measured as hypertensive at enrolment.Future plansWe plan to expand recruitment up to 100 000 participants from the Chicago metropolitan area in the next decade using a hybrid community and clinic-based recruitment framework that incorporates data collection through mobile medical units. Follow-up data collection from current cohort members will include serial samples, as well as longitudinal health, lifestyle and behavioural assessment. We will supplement self-reported data with electronic medical records, expand the collection of biometrics and biosamples to facilitate increasing digital epidemiological study designs and link to state and/or national level databases to ascertain outcomes. The results and findings will inform potential opportunities for precision disease prevention and mitigation in Chicago and other urban areas with a diverse population.RegistrationNA.

The Sexual and Reproductive Health Burden Index: Development, Validity, and Community-Level Analyses of a Composite Spatial Measure.

The Sexual and Reproductive Health Burden Index (SRHBI) was developed to provide a composite spatial measure of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) indicators that can be widely adopted by urban public health departments for the planning of SRH services. The index was constructed using eight indicators: teen births, low birthweight, infant mortality, new HIV diagnoses, people living with HIV, and incidences of gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis. Chicago Department of Public Health data (2014-2017) were used to calculate index scores for Chicago community areas; scores were mapped to provide geovisualization and global Moran's I was calculated to assess spatial autocorrelation. Cronbach's alpha was calculated to assess internal reliability of the SRHBI. Pearson correlations were conducted to assess concurrent validity and correlation with community-level factors. Linear regression was conducted to assess community-level predictors of the SRHBI. Application of the SRHBI in Chicago demonstrates substantial variation in SRH burden across Chicago's urban landscape with significant spatial autocorrelation of scores (I = .580, p = .001). Internal reliability of the measure was excellent with α = .937. The SRHBI was significantly correlated with other indicators of SRH including rate of prenatal care initiation in the first trimester, rate of preterm births, reported sexual assault incidence, cervical cancer incidence, prostate cancer incidence, and rate of smoking during pregnancy. This suggests good concurrent validity of the measure. Linear regression revealed that the percent of Black residents, percent of household couples that are same-sex, community violence, economic hardship, and population density were significant predictors of the SRHBI. The SRHBI provides a valid, useful, and replicable measure to assess and communicate community-level SRH burden in urban environments. The SRHBI may be scaled through a multi-city public data dashboard and utilized by urban public health departments to optimally target and tailor SRH interventions to communities.

The Role of Proto-Forms in the Emergence of Historic Movie Theaters in Chicago Communities: 1896-1962

We develop a novel concept of proto-form to understand the “pre- birth” processes of organizational form emergence, which take place between the discovery of a technological or social novelty and the eventual emergence of organizational forms dedicated to exploiting this novelty. We define a proto-form as a provisional organizational form that arises when entrepreneurs and enthusiasts experiment with possible applications of a novelty by using preexisting organizational forms as a basis. Proto-forms are a key step in the emergence of dedicated organizational forms, because they provide audiences with initial understandings of the novelty’s socio-cultural meanings. We theorize that the cultural status of proto-forms can affect how quickly dedicated forms with either similar or dissimilar cultural status emerge in geographic communities. Using data on all historic movie-showing venues in Chicago, Illinois, 1896-1962, we predicted and found that the proliferation of proto-forms with low cultural status in a community accelerated the emergence of dedicated organizational forms with low cultural status and delayed the emergence of dedicated forms with high cultural status. We predicted the opposite for the proliferation of proto-forms with high cultural status and found partial support to this prediction. These results provide initial evidence for the important role of proto-forms in understanding the emergence of new organizational forms.

Chicago community task force seeks to address trauma's role in violence

In a year when gun‐related violence and fatalities in Chicago are running close to 50% ahead of 2019 numbers, one incident in particular has galvanized response on the city's West Side. The killing of a three‐year‐old child over Father's Day weekend has inspired the formation of a task force that will seek to shed light on the link between a community's trauma and acts of violence.

Seeking justice rooted in truth, reconciliation and forgiveness

ABSTRACT This paper presents an overview of the philosophy and implementation of restorative justice practices, the challenges and accomplishments of which we examine across the arc of the twentieth and emerging twenty-first century. Restorative justice, we argue, is both counterintuitive and pragmatic in its application. We examine truth and reconciliation hearings, intentional peace communities, and other paragons of the restorative justice model from a macroscopic perspective. A case study offers a microscopic lens to the conflict-ridden communities in Chicago, IL, ground zero for the epidemic of handgun violence in the U. S. We conclude with a discussion of what pragmatic hope restorative justice practices might offer to embattled landscapes which stretch from foreign lands to our own communities.

Abstract A030: Empowering Latinas to obtain breast cancer screenings: Comparing intervention effects and cost effectiveness

Abstract Purpose: Latinas suffer disproportionately from breast cancer relative to non-Latina Whites, partially due to lower guideline-concordant screening. Multiple approaches are used to address this disparity including educational interventions and empowerment-related interventions, wherein a subset of the population is trained to share information with other members of the priority population. However, little is known about the relative effects of these different approaches. Objective: To analyze preliminary data regarding the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of education and empowerment approaches. Methods: This ongoing, quasiexperimental trial is situated in two lower-income Latino communities in Chicago. Eligibility criteria include: 1) age of 52-74; 2) no mammography use within past 2 years; 3) no previous breast cancer diagnosis; and 4) no prior health volunteerism experience. Women are assigned to a cohort and participate in a three-week intervention (education: breast cancer, diet, physical activity; empowerment: breast cancer, sharing information with networks, health volunteerism). For women who wish to obtain mammography (from either arm), the study team provides navigation to free/low-cost services. Data collected at baseline, post-intervention, and six-month follow-up include standard demographics and self-reported mammography use, which are verified by study navigation records. The perspective for cost-effectiveness analyses was the community-based organization implementing the program. Cost data include overhead, non-personnel, and personnel costs (per task, per person encounter). Cost data were standardized to US dollars in 2018 and extrapolated to the duration of study implementation. Results: Our current sample is 97 women (51 education; 46 empowerment). Most women were 52-64 years old (70%), had insurance (58%), had less than a 9th grade education (60%), had an annual household income of <$15,000 (67%), and were born in Mexico (86%). More empowerment participants obtained a mammogram than education participants, after adjusting for age, education, income, insurance, mammography history, and mammography plans (47% vs. 74%; OR = 3.2, 95%CI [1.1, 9.00], p=.001). The empowerment intervention was also less expensive. The costs for education and empowerment interventions were $32,919 and $24,983 ($645 and $490 per person), respectively. Hence, empowerment appears to be a dominant strategy. Discussion: Empowerment approaches may be more effective and more cost effective in promoting mammography than education approaches among non-adherent Latinas. Limitations concern generalizability due a non-probability based sample, and limited ability for causal inferences due to a lack of randomization. Next steps include incorporating participants' costs and including unintended effects (e.g., number of non-participant women obtaining mammography). Citation Format: Yamile Molina, Liliana G. San Miguel, Catherine Pichardo, Genesis Rios, Leslie Diaz, Stephanie Cardenas, Esmeralda Cardoso-Mendoza, Juanita Arroyo, Maria Medina, Nora Coronado, Araceli Lucio, Olivia Hernandez, Surrey Walton. Empowering Latinas to obtain breast cancer screenings: Comparing intervention effects and cost effectiveness [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eleventh AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2018 Nov 2-5; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(6 Suppl):Abstract nr A030.

Abstract B011: Empowering Latinas to obtain breast cancer screenings: Comparing interventions’ behavioral and network effects

Abstract Purpose: Multiple approaches have been used to address Latinas’ disproportionate breast cancer burden, including educational interventions and empowerment related interventions, wherein a subset of the population is trained to share information with other members of the priority population. However, little work has compared their effects. Objective: To analyze data regarding the effectiveness of education and empowerment approaches on participant behaviors and network dissemination. Methods: This quasi-experimental trial was conducted in two lower-income Latino communities in Chicago between 2017-2019. Eligibility criteria include: 1) age of 52-74; 2) no mammography use within past 2 years; 3) no previous breast cancer diagnosis; and, 4) no prior health volunteerism experience. Women were assigned to a cohort and participate in a three-week intervention (education: breast cancer, diet, physical activity; empowerment: breast cancer, sharing information with networks, health volunteerism). For women who wished to obtain mammography (from either arm), the study team provided navigation to free/low-cost services. Data were collected at baseline, post-intervention, and six-month follow-up included standard demographics; self-reported mammography use, which were verified by study navigation records; and a modified version of Burt’s General Social Survey tool for egocentric data collection. All analyses accounted for cohort clustering and adjusted for relevant covariates (age, education, income, insurance status, baseline mammography intention, social network size, baseline proportion of network engaged about breast cancer). Results: There was a total of 145 women who enrolled in the study, of which 126 completed the intervention (64 empowerment, 62 education). Approximately 70% of participants were 52-64 years old, 57% were insured, 58% had less than a 9th grade education, had an annual household income of <$15,000 (44%), and 83% were born in Mexico. More empowerment participants had greater odds of obtaining a mammogram relative to education participants, 47% vs 84%; OR = 6.1, 95%CI [2.3, 15.5], p<.0001. Simultaneously, relative to education participants, empowerment participants talked to more women about breast cancer (M = 5.4 SD = 4.7 vs M= 2.6, SD = 2.6; Std B = 2.7, 95%CI [1.3, 4.0], p<.0001) as well as had greater odds of endorsing a specific type of breast cancer screening (69% vs 39%, OR = 3.6, 95%CI[1.7, 7.4], p =.001) and disseminating breast cancer information in public locations (48% vs 23%, OR = 3.2, 95%CI [1.6, 6.7], p = .002). Discussion: Empowerment approaches appear to be more effective at promoting mammography among non-adherent Latinas and enabling community-wide dissemination of evidence-based breast health information, when compared to education approaches. Limitations concern generalizability due a non-probability based sample, and limited ability for causal inferences due to a lack of randomization. Citation Format: Yamilé Molina, Liliana G. San Miguel, Catherine Pichardo, Genesis Rios, Juanita Arroyo, Maria Medina, Nora Coronado, Araceli Lucio, Olivia Hernandez. Empowering Latinas to obtain breast cancer screenings: Comparing interventions’ behavioral and network effects [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2019 Sep 20-23; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(6 Suppl_2):Abstract nr B011.

Making at Home: Interest-Driven Practices and Supportive Relationships in Minoritized Homes

The maker movement advocates hands-on making with emerging technologies because of its value for promoting innovative and personally meaningful transdisciplinary learning. Educational research has focused on settings that primarily serve youth from dominant groups, yet we know surprisingly little about making among minoritized youth and the kinds of resources that support their making. This study sought to better understand the extent to which maker practices are present in the lives of minoritized youth and the network of resources that support their engagement. In this study, we analyzed survey responses of 52 youth from an urban, under-resourced community in Chicago and conducted an inductive thematic analysis of 20 interviews through a model of connected learning. Findings showed these youth participated in a diverse range of interest-driven, low-tech maker activities in their own homes more often than in school, after school programs, or through online resources and communities (i.e., YouTube, Internet, social media). Many youths displayed different levels of participation with intergenerational support, as parents and extended family members supported youth in their hands-on making. This work opens up pathways for fostering connected learning opportunities within minoritized communities by building on existing learning experiences within home settings and supportive relationships.

Social Vulnerability and Racial Inequality in COVID-19 Deaths in Chicago.

Although the current COVID-19 crisis is felt globally, at the local level, COVID-19 has disproportionately affected poor, highly segregated African American communities in Chicago. To understand the emerging pattern of racial inequality in the effects of COVID-19, we examined the relative burden of social vulnerability and health risk factors. We found significant spatial clusters of social vulnerability and risk factors, both of which are significantly associated with the increased COVID-19-related death rate. We also found that a higher percentage of African Americans was associated with increased levels of social vulnerability and risk factors. In addition, the proportion of African American residents has an independent effect on the COVID-19 death rate. We argue that existing inequity is often highlighted in emergency conditions. The disproportionate effects of COVID-19 in African American communities are a reflection of racial inequality and social exclusion that existed before the COVID-19 crisis.

Mariánský sloup a socha Panny Marie v exilu: český katolický exil v Chicagu

The article contains the history of the Marian column topped by the statue of Our Lady, later known as the statue of Our Lady in Exile. After the destruction of the Marian column containing the statue of Our Lady on the Old Town Square in Prague in 1918, persistent efforts by Czech Catholics to renew the statue of the Immaculate Conception occurred. These efforts culminated in 1955 when the Czechoslovak exile community in Chicago welcomed the statue of the Immaculate Conception into her exile on the grounds of the Monastery of St. Procopius in Lisle. There the statue became a pilgrimage site and a pillar of the spiritual life of Czech exiles in the Chicago area. The historical facts in the article are complemented by reminiscences and authentic testimonies of Czech exiles in Chicago, whose fates, both spiritually and in other ways, the statue significantly impacted and contributed to.

Generous Gift Funds Two Foundation Programs

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article APA & MeetingsFull AccessGenerous Gift Funds Two Foundation ProgramsKatie O'ConnorKatie O'ConnorSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:3 Mar 2020https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2020.3a15AbstractThe $419,000 donation to the APA Foundation from the Howard and Bunny Wallach Fund will go toward programs aimed at advancing mental health awareness and access.The generous gift to the APA Foundation from the fund of long-time APA member Howard Wallach, M.D., and his wife, Bunny, will support programs aimed at ensuring minority and underserved populations have access to quality mental health care, says APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A.A generous gift from the fund of a long-time APA member and his wife will support two APA Foundation programs for years to come.The Howard and Bunny Wallach Fund donated $419,000 to the Foundation last year. The gift, which was made in addition to years of donations from the couple, will fund the Foundation’s Helping Hands Grants Program and the Awards for Advancing Minority Mental Health for at least four years.Howard Wallach, M.D., who died in 2013, practiced psychotherapy until 2010, according to his obituary, and served as president of the California Psychiatric Association. He was also one of the first members of the Foundation’s board of directors when it was established in 1990.“We are enormously grateful to the Howard and Bunny Wallach Fund for this considerate contribution, which will support two vital programs aimed at ensuring minority and underserved populations have access to quality mental health care,” said APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A., who is also chair of the Foundation’s Board of Directors. “Their kindness will directly benefit people with mental illness, whose voices may otherwise have gone unheard.”Established in 2003, the Awards for Advancing Minority Mental Health recognize organizations that have taken innovative steps to raise awareness of mental illness in underserved and minority communities, increase access to care, and improve the quality of care for these populations. The awards include a $5,000 financial contribution. In 2019, six organizations were recognized.The Helping Hands Grants Program, which was created in 2005, provides grants of up to $5,000. The grants are given to medical schools so students can develop projects to address issues related to mental and substance use disorders, particularly in underserved and minority communities. Since the program began, grants have been awarded to 102 recipients.The Wallachs, who lived in Los Angeles, were extraordinarily charitable during their lifetimes, especially toward Jewish communities in Chicago and Los Angeles, and their fund has continued to support philanthropic activities in their memory. ■More information on the Awards for Advancing Minority Mental Health is posted here. More information on the Helping Hands Grants Program is posted here. ISSUES NewArchived