Dr. Jamie Mitchell, Assistant Professor at University of Michigan School of Social Work and TIDL Member, was recently awarded an R24 Grant through the National Institute of Aging. Her project, Recruiting and Retaining Older African Americans into Research (ROAR), will focus on developing and translating best practices for recruiting and retaining older African Americans into NIH-relevant clinical and behavioral health research. This study will build upon “20 years of successful efforts to engage and provide health promotion programming for older adult community members in Detroit, MI through the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research (MCUAAAR).” Dr. James Jackson is the Co-PI of MCUAAAR. He and Dr. Jamie Mitchell along with a team at Wayne State University and the Michigan State University-Flint will collaborate with community organizations to establish a new community advisory board of older African American Flint residents. This advisory board will eventually oversee the establishment of a new volunteer research registry in Flint that will increase the representation of minority older adults in NIH funded studies in the area. The grant will culminate in a website that tracks best practices for community engagement around research recruitment and retention with minority older adults, as well as resources for replicating the community partnership successes Drs. Mitchell and Jackson have achieved alongside their colleagues in Flint and Detroit, MI.

 

Jamie Mitchell

 

Specific aims for ROAR include:

  1. Establishing a community advisory board of African American older adultsin Flint, Michigan through utilizing existing community partnerships.
  2. Gaining input from community advisory boards and stakeholders on the design of an effective recruitment and retention website, then develop and launch the website.
  3. Evaluate the “reach, usability and acceptability” of the website as a national template for recruitment and retention best practices.