UB's CHERI Awards Over $600,000 to East Side Community Groups and Researchers to Tackle Social Determinants of Health
Key Insights
The University at Buffalo's Community Health Equity Research Institute (search) (CHERI) has distributed more than $600,000 in grants to East Side community organizations and researchers.
Funding, sourced from an NIH National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities (search) grant, supports projects addressing social determinants of health such as housing, food access, and workforce training.
Ten community organizations received grants for initiatives ranging from home renovations and community garden rejuvenation to youth leadership and health equity ambassador programs.
The University at Buffalo's Community Health Equity Research Institute (search) (CHERI) has awarded more than $600,000 in grants to East Side community organizations and university researchers, funding a diverse array of projects aimed at mitigating the social determinants of health that disproportionately affect East Side residents.
The funding was provided through a grant awarded to CHERI by the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities (search), part of the National Institutes of Health. The grant, announced in 2024 and titled "Igniting Hope in Buffalo, New York Communities: Training the Next Generation of Health Equity Researchers," established UB's Center of Excellence in Investigator Development and Community Engagement. The center focuses on training early career researchers across all disciplines to use their expertise to mitigate social determinants of health.
"This award is exactly the kind of investment health equity work needs," said Heather M. Gardiner, PhD, director of CHERI and professor and Carl V. Granger Endowed Chair in Health Equity in the Department of Family Medicine at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB. "It doesn't just fund research, it funds community groups and organizations who are equally committed to eliminating health inequities on the East Side and across the region."
Gardiner emphasized the importance of the collaborative approach underpinning the initiative: "Importantly, the funding promotes authentic, meaningful community-academic partnerships, which we know lead to solutions that are co-created by the communities they are meant to serve, making them more relevant, appropriate, useful and impactful than those created using traditional research approaches."
Community Organization Grants
Ten community organizations received funding to implement projects targeting a wide range of social determinants of health:
Back to Basics Ministries will begin renovations on a badly damaged home of a longtime East Side resident as part of the East Side Neighborhood Transformation Project.
Body of Wealth Fitness Studio will track metrics of neighborhood participants to demonstrate how physical activity and nutritional education impact overall health.
The W.I.N. Initiative (We're Improving Now) will empower East Side activists and organizations by providing research skills and education on data collection to improve advocacy efforts.
Every Bottom Covered, the region's only diaper bank, will refine data collection and analysis to enhance impact and better support families in need.
King Urban Life Center will rejuvenate its community gardens to increase fresh food access and establish a new garden on a vacant lot.
SOAR 4 Solutions, Inc. will promote youth leadership for teens, amplifying youth voices to promote wellness and engage in community-driven action.
St. James House of Prayer will expand by 50% the number of residents to which it delivers food and hold community activities to provide health education to residents.
East Side Development Corp. will prepare new housing proposals for the New York State Block by Block grant program that develops single-family and duplex homes on vacant lots.
Future Hope Apprenticeship and Recovery Program is a workforce training program that will teach local residents the skills needed to succeed in the building trades.
Adversity Builds Character, Inc. will train young men as health equity ambassadors to hold workshops sharing information about the social determinants of health and how the community can mitigate them.
Pilot Studies Program
In addition to community grants, the initiative includes a pilot studies program that provides seed funding for early career researchers from both health care and non-health care disciplines. These researchers will engage in community-based participatory research, where community members help design, plan, and conduct the study.
The ultimate goal of the pilot studies is to obtain preliminary data that can be submitted as part of future applications for major federal funding, ensuring that the research has a lasting impact on the community. Funded pilot studies address topics including vaccine hesitancy and the development of a culturally-tailored pregnancy app for African American women and their families.