Community-academic Collaboration Research Articles

258 Promoting Academics and Community Engagement (PACE): A Protocol on the ScienCE of Community Engagement in Clinical and Translational Science

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: The Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research Community Engagement (MICHR CE) has collaborated for 15+ years with underserved communities on public health issues. As Michigan’s sole CTSA institution, we aim to advance the science of community engagement in translational science statewide. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: MICHR CE PACE (Promoting Academic-Community Engagement) will advance clinical and translational science. Key steps include: 1) form a PACE Steering Committee; 2) PACE Trainings with community-academic partner Detroit Urban Research Center; 3) PACE Training Manual; 4) community Grand Rounds to bridge academic-community insights; and 5) community resources (e.g., toolkits). PACE projects will spotlight community-engaged research (CEnR) via diverse media including social media and community-level communications. The PACE ScienCE initiative will embody cultural humility by addressing power imbalances, emphasizing trust. We will utilize assessments and root cause analyses to navigate CEnR barriers. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Anticipated results from MICHR CE’s planned approach with PACE include strengthened academic-community relationships. Formation of the PACE Steering Committee and collaborations are expected to foster more structured and impactful CEnR trainings. The PACE Training Manual will become a foundational resource for CEnR best practices. Community Grand Rounds will reveal increased interdisciplinary insights and community trust. All PACE projects will utilize diverse media to enhance CEnR visibility and community-level access. Lastly, by addressing power disparities via PACE ScienCE, we foresee enhanced trust, reduced barriers, and more transparent community-academic collaborations. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: This strategy, based on co-planned efforts and community consultations, aims to reshape Michigan’s CEnR landscape and offers a replicable model for other regions. The insights gained will guide community-academic collaborations promoting translational, inclusive, and efficient community engagement.

"How Fluent Do I Need to Be to Say I'm Fluent?" Research Experiences of Communities that Speak Languages Other than English.

The goal of this study was to partner with community organizations to understand the research experiences of communities who speak languages other than English (LOE). We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews in Spanish, Nepali, Mandarin, French, or Kizigua with LOE community members and community leaders who completed recruitment and data collection. Audio-recordings of the interviews were transcribed and translated. We conducted qualitative coding using a mixed deductive-inductive analysis approach and thematic analyses using three rounds of affinity clustering. This study occurred in partnership with an established community-academic collaboration. Thirty community members and six community leaders were interviewed. 83% of LOE participants were born outside of the US and most participants (63%) had never participated in a prior research study. Six themes emerged from this work. Many participants did not understand the concept of research, but those that did thought that inclusion of LOE communities is critical for equity. Even when research was understood as a concept, it was often inaccessible to LOE individuals, particularly because of the lack of language services. When LOE participants engaged in research, they did not always understand their participation. Participants thought that improving research trust was essential and recommended partnering with community organizations and disseminating research results to the community. This study's results can serve as an important foundation for researchers seeking to include LOE communities in future research to be more inclusive and scientifically rigorous.

From Vaccines to Vitality: The Progression of a Community-Academic Collaboration.

In this practice note, we document the progression of the Community Vaccine Collaborative (CVC), on which we first published in 2021. The CVC convened to address deep COVID-19-related disparities affecting the Black, Latine, immigrant/refugee, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, (questioning), intersex, asexual, and (agender; LGBTQIA+) communities. The COVID-19 pandemic is rooted in centuries of oppression and marginalization leading to inequities and required dedicated focus to support marginalized communities in times of crisis. The CVC comprises community members, community-based organizations, health care providers, researchers, health systems leaders, and public health practitioners (among others), all of whom are dedicated to promoting COVID-19 vaccine equity. As the pandemic shifts and changes, so too has our group, to remain relevant to community needs and priorities. This article details Year 2 of the CVC, focusing on how we have grown and sustained this unique partnership. We also share results from an evaluation of the CVC, documenting participation in the collaborative space and alignment with CVC core principles. Finally, we discuss next steps and implications for the CVC including our pivot from vaccines to community vitality as we expand and sustain our collaborative efforts to address the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and intersecting public health crises.

Academic Allyship in Nursing: Deconstructing a successful community-academic collaboration

Public health and social care systems in Canada are frequently racist and discriminatory towards Indigenous people and exacerbates health inequities that Indigenous people experience. In New Brunswick, there are a range of culturally informed health and social services being offered within First Nations communities and by Indigenous organization that operate outside of reserves. Some of these services and organizations rely on support from non-Indigenous allies to meet the needs of their community members.

COVID-19 Information Sources for Black and Latine Communities: A Community Co-created Survey.

To ensure equity in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine access, it is critical that Black and Latine communities receive trustworthy COVID-19 information. This study uses community-based participatory research to understand sources of COVID-19 information for Black and Latine adults, how trustworthy that information is, and relationships between information sources and COVID-19 vaccine intention. We co-created a survey in Spanish and English and distributed it to Black and Latine adults residing in the Pittsburgh area. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression. There were 574 participants who completed the survey. Participants reported accessing a variety of COVID-19 information sources and generally trusted these sources. Few sources of information were associated with COVID-19 vaccine intention. We also review lessons learned from our community-academic collaboration. Trustworthy COVID-19 information sources may not be sufficient for increasing vaccine intention. Results can help other community-academic partnerships working to improve COVID-19 vaccine equity.

Uniting liberatory and participatory approaches in public psychology with refugees.

Increasing inequities both within and between nations call psychologists to consider whom they intend their research and practice to serve. The purpose of this article is to propose a public psychology rooted in the values of liberation psychology and utilizing participatory research methods to enact change. To exemplify this framework, we present the work of a community research partnership between academics and individuals with lived experience as refugees. All aspects of our research process, including the development of research questions and design, data collection and analysis, and dissemination and action planning, have been conducted via community-academic collaboration. Our focus has been to gain understanding of the strengths and concerns of Cincinnati's diverse refugee communities to inform actions promoting civic engagement. Refugee coresearchers successfully administered a collectively developed survey to 291 refugees in seven languages and facilitated follow-up focus groups with 35 people. Additionally, refugee coresearchers have identified three action plans based on the research findings to promote civic engagement; thus, translating research into meaningful action. This article details phases of our research process and interprets findings in the context of liberation psychology to illustrate the benefits of public psychology for academia, social policy, and community practice. We also discuss how our research illustrates the ways public psychology has the potential to not only promote greater equity but also to improve science. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Community-engaged research to develop a Chicago violence research agenda and recommendations to support future community engagement

BackgroundChicago has a history of gun violence with some neighborhoods, particularly Black and Brown communities, being disproportionately affected and Black male youth experiencing an even more disparate impact. Too often, violence prevention research is developed and carried out with little or no input from the people living in the most affected communities. The objective of the Community-Academic Collaboration to Prevent Violence in Chicago (CACPVC) was to bring together individuals from impacted communities with academic researchers and other community stakeholders to discuss violence and co-create a research agenda that addresses topics of mutual concern, and recommendations for engaging stakeholders including community members and organizations and funders in violence and violence prevention research.MethodsFrom 2014 to 2015, community members and organizations from seven defined regions across Chicago were recruited to participate. An organization network gathering was held in each region for researchers, funders, and community organization representatives to discuss violence prevention. Open community forums then took place in each community. Violence data by region was shared followed by facilitated group discussions that were recorded by youth scribes. Notes were thematically coded, grouped, and compiled after which a list of topics was refined by the CACPVC Work Group, allowing for investigator triangulation. A survey was disseminated to community stakeholders to prioritize the topics.ResultsSeven network gatherings (127 attendees) and community forums (133 attendees) were held. Topic areas identified during the gatherings and forums included root causes/cycle of violence, racism and bias/structural violence, trajectory of violence, protective factors and nonviolence, geographic pattern change, violence prevention strategies, youth, family factors, community factors, school, police, gangs/street organizations, and media and public perceptions. Recommendations to support community engagement were grouped as role of research in reducing violence, role of community in violence research, relationships and respect, academic-community communication, financial considerations, training, practical considerations, research design, sharing results, communication about and use of data, and recommendations for funders.ConclusionsThe violence research agenda will be used to inform community-engaged violence prevention research. The recommendations for community engagement provide a resource for researchers about topics to consider to meaningfully engage community members in future research.

A Community Partnered Approach to Promoting COVID-19 Vaccine Equity.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disproportionately affected communities of color. To dismantle these disparities, it is critical to promote COVID-19 vaccine equity, both through increasing vaccine access and addressing vaccine mistrust. This article describes a community-academic collaboration (the Community Vaccine Collaborative [CVC]), whose mission is to ensure COVID-19 vaccine equity among marginalized communities. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, our group has focused on inclusion of marginalized groups into vaccine clinical trials, addressing vaccine mistrust, and building systems to ensuring equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine. We review formation of the CVC, activities to-date, and recommendations for other communities interested in developing similar collaboratives.

Funding a Peoples’ Food Justice Geography? Community–Academic Collaborations as Geographic Praxis

Community–academic collaborations that value experience-based knowledge alongside institutional ways of knowing have long been of interest in geography. In 1984, Harvey proposed a “peoples’ geography” that would integrate nonacademic knowledge into the field, increasing geography’s potential to help create a just world. Recent community–academic food justice collaborations have taken up this proposition through initiatives addressing issues from food access to dismantling racism, suggesting possibilities for a “peoples’ food justice geography.” Grant funding is often necessary for such work and might allow for more equitable participation or increase project reach but can necessitate redistribution of time spent on project activities, reinforce hierarchies, or be counterproductive to systemic change. If funding for community–academic food justice collaborations is to help create an inclusive and nonelitist geographic praxis, deeper understanding of its effects is essential. This article explores these possibilities. Drawing from an examination of the U.S. food funding landscape and field experiences in Chicago and New York, we show how funding, or lack thereof, can affect such collaborations. We argue that despite sustained debate about philanthropy and social change, with long-term vision, funding can advance food justice goals. We conclude with reflections on the relevance for a peoples’ food justice geography.

Promoting Public Good and Wellness from the Perspective of a Midwestern Regional Baptist Church Community-led Research Engagement Partnership

Faith-based communities supporting diverse and underserved communities are increasingly being recognized by researchers as community “anchor institutions” and equitable partners in research engagement. Research suggests that faith-based organizations (FBOs) can promote health and well-being within congregations and throughout communities. This evidence has energized community-academic partnerships to collaboratively support FBOs in plans to improve community wellbeing and health equity, particularly within communities of color. This paper describes the evolution of a community-academic collaboration led by a Full Gospel Midwest Regional Baptist Church where the co-partners professed a commitment to advancing the public good through collaborative governance and shared goal setting in the delivery of an engagement training program. Core features highlighted are: (1) establishing a Community Advisory Board; (2) developing a research engagement training program; and (3) analyses, results, and legacy. Extension of the church-led mission to lead research engagement connects leaders and communities to resources and scientific expertise in support of the data needs and aspirations of faith-based communities. As research-ready partners, faith-based communities have the capacity to function as localized anchors to drive urban health policy and to serve as advocates by being the “voice” in community-driven research engagement for “public good.”

No Longer an Island: A Social Network Intervention Engaging Black Men Through CBPR.

The aim of this study was to assess outcomes from a multilevel social network intervention to promote the health of Black men. Through a community–academic collaboration and using a participatory research approach, we implemented the intervention over 4 years in a 110-block area of an urban neighborhood. The project aimed to implement a neighborhood peer outreach and leadership network to strengthen social support of Black men and increase community and family engagement. Intervention activities included three 12-month intergenerational peer support groups (N = 46), a door-to-door outreach campaign (N = 186), media and communication efforts, and a community partner network. Primary outcomes for the peer support groups were measured using a pretest/posttest cohort design and included social support, perceived stress, social capital, and global self-esteem. Primary outcomes for the door-to-door outreach campaign were measured using a repeated cross-sectional design and included a sense of community, neighborhood social interaction, perceived neighborhood control, and self-rated health status. Significant findings from the peer support groups included an increase in social support overall (p = .027), driven by improvements in guidance, reliable alliance, and reassurance of worth; and an improvement in perceived stress (p = .047). Significant findings from the door-to-door outreach campaign included increases in neighborhood social interaction (p < .0001) and perceived neighborhood control (p = .036). This project provides evidence that a participatory approach to planning and delivering a health promotion intervention aimed at creating positive social spaces and enhancing social connections can result in significant outcomes and successful engagement of Black men.

A Community-Academic Collaboration to Support Chronic Disease Self-Management among Individuals Living in Permanent Supportive Housing.

Individuals experiencing chronic homelessness with a chronic health condition may qualify for permanent supportive housing (PSH). Given limited PSH resources, it is important to identify priority programming with demonstrated effectiveness. A community-academic partnership was formed to address the priority health needs of individuals living in PSH. Community stakeholders identified diabetes self-management as a priority health need. Wisdom, Power, Control (WPC), an evidence-based diabetes self-management program, was piloted for seven weeks with diabetic (type 2) or prediabetic PSH residents. A survey was administered at baseline and program completion. HbA1c was assessed at baseline and 3-month follow-up. Those who completed the Program (N = 10), reported a significant increase in diabetes knowledge, self-efficacy and foot self-care. The average hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) of the participants significantly decreased from 8.86 to 6.88. Pilot data from this study provides an example of a community-academic partnership that improved the health of individuals in PSH through evidence-based programming.

A Community Academic Partnership Approach to Addressing Health Needs of the Local Refugees: Participants’ Perspectives and Recommendations for Developing New Partnerships

Community-academic partnerships have demonstrated how collaboration can provide academic healthcare workers and non-medical community providers such as educators and social services with a comprehensive view of issues affecting refugee populations. The ICIH (Interagency Council on Immigrant Health) is a physician-community partnership consisting of healthcare professionals, non-medical educators, social workers, early childhood services and other community agencies. It was formed to address the well-being of a local immigrant population, strengthen bonds between the community and healthcare system, and educate and empower pediatricians to provide culturally aware services. The collaboration has been very successful as demonstrated by the production of multiple collaborative products in a very short time period with minimal funding. This article explores the experiences of community and physician members in order to share insights and recommendations for others working in small cities who wish to start such a collaborative. We collected data from 17 of 30 ICIH members through focus groups, interviews, and a survey and conducted a qualitative analysis using transcripts from these sessions. From our analysis, the following themes emerged: 1) increased awareness of challenges faced by refugee families, 2) making connections and collaborating with a diverse group of agencies, 3) improvement of care for the population using knowledge learned through the ICIH, 4) expanding perspectives through the sharing of information between agencies, 5) the importance of education for providers and community members about the refugee population, and 6) relational support gained through interaction with other service providers struggling to overcome similar obstacles. Results support the ideals of a productive community-academic partnership. With this information, we present recommendations for others working to establish similar community-academic collaboration efforts.

Community-Initiated Research Engagement: Equitable Partnership Delivering Research-Ready Faith-Based Ambassadors.

Faith-based communities supporting diverse and underserved communities are increasingly being recognized by health researchers as valued partners for research engagement. Although the "why engage" is clearly documented, the how and lessons learned is less well evidenced. This article describes community-academic collaboration initiated by African American faith-based church leaders to foster equitable partnership, engagement and shared decision making in patient-centered health research initiatives. A phased process of relationship and capacity building was used to found and operationalize a mixed stakeholder community advisory board (CAB). Core phases presented in this article are (1) pre-CAB capacity building, (2) developing the CAB vision and mission, (3) extending CAB capacity, and (4) sustaining CAB capacity. Collaborative governance and shared goal setting delivers research engagement which supports the data needs and aspirations of faith-based communities. Faith-based communities have the capacity to design and deliver community appropriate governance for research engagement.

Fostering Community-Academic Partnerships to Promote Employment Opportunities for Refugees with Disabilities: Accomplishments, Dilemmas, and Deliberations

Little attention has been given to the processes and dynamics involved in community-engaged research with hard-to-reach and marginalized communities. This concept paper focuses on experiences with and lessons learned from the developmental phase of a community-engaged research project aimed at promoting the economic self-sufficiency of refugees with disabilities in Illinois. Steps taken to foster collaboration between academic researchers and community stakeholders are described, followed by the authors’ commentary on challenges encountered and how these were addressed. Several methods were used to facilitate engagement of community stakeholders. In the pre-funding stage, lead researchers identified potential community partners by networking with coalition groups and task forces focused on disability- and refugee-related issues. In the post-funding stage, relationships with partners were formalized, partners’ roles were defined, and contractual agreements were developed. An advisory board consisting of representatives from partner agencies and self-advocates with disabilities was also assembled to help guide the project goals and deliverables. Structured group and one-on-one meetings were held to sustain community partner engagement. These community engagement strategies were deemed successful. However, challenges did emerge due to conflict between community stakeholders’ preferences, and research logistics and regulatory requirements of the academic institution. Findings suggest that with careful planning, barriers to community-academic collaborations can be addressed in ways that benefit all parties. This paper offers practical strategies and a roadmap for other community-engaged research projects focusing on vulnerable and marginalized groups.

Smartphone ownership and perspectives on health apps among a vulnerable population in East Harlem, New York.

Individuals from low-income and racial/ethnic minority backgrounds have traditionally had less access to mobile health (mHealth) technologies, but there is evidence that this gap has been rapidly narrowing. Given the increase in access to mobile technologies recently seen in vulnerable populations, mHealth has been championed as a strategy for improving population health and reducing health disparities. However, members of low-income and racial/ethnic minority populations have had a limited role in the development and implementation of mHealth interventions designed to impact them. We used community-based participatory research (CBPR), a research approach that is frequently employed to help reach communities that are disproportionately affected by illness but are difficult to engage. Our community-academic collaboration, the East Harlem Partnership for Diabetes Prevention, sought to create a mobile technology platform that would allow adults in East Harlem, New York to improve their own health and promote the health of the broader community. As a first step, we developed and conducted a survey of community residents to better understand access to, usage of, and attitudes towards mobile technologies among diverse, low-income adults. We administered the cross-sectional survey to a convenience sample of adults who utilized a variety of community-based organizations in East Harlem. We examined frequencies for each survey item and then used chi-square tests (or Fisher's exact tests) and multivariate logistic regression to evaluate relationships between these outcomes and sociodemographic factors. We approached 154 people, of whom 104 (68%) agreed to participate. The majority of respondents were of Black and/or Hispanic/Latino descent with a mean age of 37 years. Our sample displayed a high percentage of smartphone ownership (82% of the participants reported that they owned a cell phone, and 88% of owners reported that their cell phone was a smartphone). We found lower rates of ownership among individuals who were older, self-identified as Latino, insured by Medicare, and had a household income of less than $30,000 per year. Multivariate logistic regression showed that after adjusting for age, gender and race, those with at least a high school education were seven times more likely to use health apps than those with less than a high school education (OR 6.8, 95% CI: 1.7-27.1). Participants expressed interest in health promoting apps that provide interactive, individualized diet, exercise and weight loss tools and offer information about local health resources and events. Despite some notable disparities, our study results suggest that the digital divide is narrowing in the East Harlem community with relatively high rates of smartphone ownership and use, even among individuals from low-income, low education backgrounds and those without health insurance. Based on study results, our partnership developed an app supporting healthy lifestyle and diabetes prevention tailored to the East Harlem community.

Literature Review on Relationship Building for Community-academic Collaboration in Health Research and Innovation

In response to European Commission Horizon 2020’s call for ‘science-for-and-with-community’, scholars have recognized the need to conduct ‘responsible research and innovation’ and engage more with communities to combat today’s complex health challenges. Hence, higher priority has been placed to cooperate with communities in health research and innovation development to better match societal values, needs and expectations. Accordingly, the approach of community-based participatory research (CBPR), the ‘gold standard’ within the community-engaged research spectrum, is the most widely discussed. However, it is seldom achieved in reality, as it requires establishment and maintenance of open, transparent, trustful and ongoing relationships between community partners and academia to succeed. Paradoxically, despite of the significance of quality collaborative relationship to the quality and success of community-academic collaboration, the key elements to achieve it were seldom discussed.Herein, the literature review aimed to (1) discuss the previous experiences and challenges in building and sustaining community-academic collaborative relationships; (2) examine the relationship building strategies for quality collaborative relationships; and (3) identify the potential research gaps for future research.Focusing on the area of health research and innovation, peer-reviewed articles, books and grey literature related to building and sustaining relationships in community-academic collaboration published between 1998 and 2018 were identified using the Web of Science, PubMed and Google Scholar bibliographic databases and Google search engine. Literature available in full-texts and English language with a focus on relationship aspects of community-academic collaboration were examined. Previous literature suggested thatacademics and community members encountered common challenges in experiencing inequitable relationships, distrust, divide between academia and community, uncommon norms of power sharing, dissemination of results and lack of resources for maintaining long-term relationships. Two approaches of relationship building: (1) personal qualities and competence, and (2) actions for relationship building from the beginning to the end stages of collaborative relationship were discussed. Literature revealed that the ways that academics approach, collaborate, communicate with and maintain in the community had significant impact on both current and future collaborative relationships. In addition, academics differed in acceptance and readiness towards community engagement, which could be attributed to the differences in personal qualities and competence. Future research should target on identifying the factors contributing to such individual differences and compare its impact on the quality of relationship with community, so as to better cultivate individuals’ readiness and capacity towards community engagement and effective relationship building with community.

One-Year Mixed-Methods Case Study of a Community-Academic Advisory Board Addressing Childhood Obesity.

Using a community-based participatory research and systems-based approach, the purpose of this community case study is to describe the planning process and first-year experiences of community-academic advisory board (CAB) partners involved with the development of an evidence-based childhood obesity treatment program in a medically underserved region. Regional community partners ( n = 9; Pittsylvania/Danville Health District, Children's Healthcare Center, Danville Parks & Recreation, and Danville Boys & Girls Club) and academic partners ( n = 9) met monthly to select and adapt an evidence-based childhood obesity program, develop evaluation and recruitment protocols, and plan for program implementation. In the first 3 months, members developed a mixed-methods capacity evaluation, administered at 3 and 11 months following the first CAB meeting. Most capacity dimensions were rated highly and demonstrated no significant change over time. However, perceptions of trust approached a significant increase ( p = .055), the ability to resolve conflicts significantly increased ( p = .018), and participation and influ-ence perceptions significantly decreased ( p = .001). Qualitative analysis elucidated members' experiences and key facilitator and barrier themes emerged. Similarities and differences between community and academic members' experiences allowed synthesis of best practices and lessons learned. The methodological framework and best practices can inform the capacity development for new community-academic collaborations.

A Community Health Initiative: Evaluation and Early Lessons Learned.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) has been shown to enhance trust and engagement among community academic partners. However, the value of CBPR among hyper-researched, inner-city communities has not been evaluated adequately. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a CBPR based engagement process in an inner-city, hyper-researched, underserved community. A qualitative process evaluation was conducted using focus groups, key informant in-depth interviews, and a brief survey to evaluate the attitudes, perceptions, beliefs, impact of, and satisfaction with the CBPR engagement process used to plan and conduct a community asset mapping project. Three focus groups, eight in-depth interviews, and survey responses from 31 individuals were obtained and analyzed. Findings include a sense of accomplishment and value with the engagement process, as well as a sense of tangible benefits of the process perceived by community members and academic research partners. CBPR may represent an effective approach to enhancing trust and community-academic collaboration even among cynical, resistant, hyper-researched, underserved communities.

Breast for Success: A Community-Academic Collaboration to Increase Breastfeeding Among High-Risk Mothers in Cleveland.

Exclusive breastfeeding is the optimal method of infant feeding. However, breastfeeding rates are notable for profound health disparities, for example, among inner-city African American women. Community-academic partnership offers an opportunity to intervene. To describe a targeted breastfeeding intervention anchored on community health worker (CHW) home visits to high-risk expectant mothers in Cleveland, Ohio, and to identify specific intervention components that increase the chances (odds) of a mother breastfeeding. We used a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach and partnered with the Cleveland Department of Public Health MomsFirst Project and Community Endeavors Foundation, Inc., to create a culturally competent breastfeeding education program that "piggy backed" onto MomsFirst programming. Intervention components assessed include those delivered by CHWs (interactive modules and opportunity to select a doula) and by a lactation counselor (pre and postpartum phone calls, post-partum home visits). The 602 women who received any intervention component and reported a feeding outcome at 1 month postpartum were a mean age of 22.2 years, 514 (85.4%) were African American, 555 (92%) were unmarried, and 311 (52.4%) had not graduated high school. In multivariate analysis, odds of any breastfeeding were increased by receipt of curricular modules (odds ratio [OR], 1.11; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.05-1.17, for each additional module) and by a postpartum visit (OR, 3.79; 95% CI, 2.06-6.96), and odds of exclusive breastfeeding were significantly increased by a postpartum visit (OR, 2.03; 95% CI, 1.13-3.63). Through community-academic partnership, we identified intervention components that significantly increased the odds of breastfeeding in this high-risk population and can inform future collaborations.