NBCUSA awarded a $750,000 NIH Grant
Press Release – For Immediate Release
National Baptist Convention, USA, Incorporated, H.O.P.E. HHS Partnership
All of Us Research Program Awards Funding to National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.
Nashville, TN. September 9, 2021 — The All of Us Research Program has awarded $750,000 to the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. (NBCUSA) to help strengthen recruitment of participants and researchers underrepresented in biomedical research. The NBCUSA was one of seven community partners awarded funding including: American Association on Health and Disability, Asian Health Coalition, FiftyForward, National Alliance for Hispanic Health, Stanford University, and Baylor College of Medicine.
All of Us is a national effort that aims to build one of the largest, most diverse databases of health information from one million or more people that researchers can use to study health and disease. With this new funding, the NBCUSA will collaborate with other program awardees and divisions to involve underrepresented communities using engagement, outreach, enrollment, and retention strategies and tactics.
“Our community engagement partners provide crucial support to help deliver on the promise of All of Us,” said Josh Denny, MD, MS, CEO of All of Us Research Program. “Through their continued commitment to the program, they fortify our network of trusted community organizations, provide a vital sounding board to shape our activities and direction, lend their expertise to overcome communities’ distrust of research, motivate diverse communities to enroll and remain engaged with our program, and support diverse researchers doing research in All of Us.”
“We are excited about this opportunity to expand the scope of our H.O.P.E. Health Ministry,” said Dr. Jerry Young, President of the NBCUSA. “It is not lost on me that this announcement comes in the middle of Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month. We hope that our outreach, education, and enrollment efforts will not only increase enrollment in All of Us. We also hope that it will increase the number of people with sickle cell and the sickle cell trait in this research database.”
As part of the new award, the NBCUSA will expand its existing national Health Ambassador Network and engage with the All of Us Research Program’s health care provider organizations and other partners to promote enrollment and recruitment. Additionally, the NBCUSA will engage with researchers from underrepresented groups and help advance the science of engagement.
To date, more than 400,000 participants have enrolled in the All of Us Research Program, including more than 292,000 who have completed all the initial steps of the program. Of those, about 80% come from communities that are historically underrepresented in research—racial and ethnic minorities, sexual and gender minorities, residents of rural areas, and other groups.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
Precision Medicine Initiative, All of Us, the All of Us logo, and “The Future of Health Begins with You” are service marks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Founded in 1886, the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. (Convention) is the nation’s oldest and largest African American religious convention with over 31,000 churches. To learn more about the Convention, please visit https://www.nationalbaptist.com/about-nbc. The Convention’s H.O.P.E. Health Ministry is a collaborative effort of Convention churches, medical professionals, and health related organizations committed to health outreach and prevention education (H.O.P.E.). To learn more about H.O.P.E., you may go to https://hopenbc.com/about.
Learn more about All of Us partners and funding opportunities. This award is supported by NIH award number: OT2 OD031918. OT2 OD 031918 – 01
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For more information, please contact Dr. Michael O. Minor at (901) 826 – 8355 or [email protected].