Appalachian Bridges to the Future: Resilience in Fayette County
The primary objective of this partnership is to unite Pitt faculty (via the David C. Frederick Honors College) with the Fayette County Cultural Trust (FCCT) to assess and begin to address the causes and consequences of outmigration of higher educated and skilled individuals from Fayette County, PA, an economically distressed area located about an hour’s drive from Pitt’s Oakland campus. Central to this goal is the creation of a lasting positive relationship with the FCCT and other community stakeholders that will allow us to provide research and programmatic support to the residents of Fayette County while also addressing our central research topics and providing an opportunity for undergraduate students to engage in ethical community-based research.
Grace Lamsam Pharmacy Program
For over two decades, the Grace Lamsam Pharmacy Program (GLPP) of the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy has been a beacon of compassion, delivering pharmacy services to the most vulnerable populations in the Pittsburgh region—those experiencing homlessness, the working poor, the underinsured, and the uninsured. Rooted in the belief that every person deserves quality healthcare and medications delivered with dignity, the GLPP has made it its duty to make this care available whenever possible.
The CHURCH (Congregations as Healers United to Restore Community Health)
The CHURCH project is a Community-Partnered Participatory Research (CPPR) project in which Pitt researchers collaborate with African American faith leaders in Homewood, PA, to develop, implement, and evaluate a mental health training curriculum (e.g., Renew Your Mind) that can be delivered in Black churches. The training includes four 90-minute training modules based on cognitive behavioral therapy principles, which have been culturally tailored by incorporating spirituality and African American sacred music through collaboration with African American clergy and local Black church musicians. The training seeks to increase faith leaders’ mental health knowledge and self-efficacy in educating congregational members about evidence-based strategies to manage mental distress resulting from daily stressors.