Green Umbrella announces The Grassroots Collaboration Award recipients!

Green Umbrella’s Climate Research Incubator (CRI), in partnership with the Community Engagement Core of the Center for Collaboration on Climate and Community for Health (C4H), announces the recipients of The Grassroots Collaboration Award. Made possible by funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the award program is designed to support research that begins with community-level input on the health effects of climate change in vulnerable communities. Eligible applicants included previous or current CRI Researcher Cohorts and/or existing CRI Projects. The two projects selected were:

Understanding the Mental Health Needs of Those Experiencing Harm Due to Climate Change in an Economically Burdened, High-Risk Community
This project is being led by Nzingha Dalila, EdD, LPCC-S, LCDC-III, Clinical Counselor and Instructor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati (UC), and Earnest J. Davis, Jr., Ph.D, President of the Mantle Center, Community Psychology Health Collaborative. The project will explore the emotional, psychological, and practical impacts of climate change on the neighborhood of Bond Hill. Working closely with Bond Hill residents, the project will focus on the lived experiences, emotional responses, and unmet needs of community members through the lens of climate change impacts related to events like heatwaves, flooding, pollution, and infrastructure disruption. Findings will be made available to inform climate behavioral health interventions, policies, and adaptation strategies that center the voices of those most affected and improve their ability to respond to individual and community stresses.

Ground Yourself in Green Space: Avondale
This project is being led by UC Assistant Professor,  Anca Matyiku, Ph.D.;  Aisha Tzillah, of the Avondale Development Corporation; NKU Assistant Professor,  Yingying Xie, Ph.D.; and Crystal Russell, Coordinator of Macklin Legacy Garden. In collaboration with numerous other community and academic partners, this project takes on the call to ground the Avondale community in green spaces through environmental data collection and workshops that connect residents to the ecology, biodiversity, and potential for well-being that green spaces support. Efforts will support understanding and knowledge among residents regarding their neighborhood’s environment and factors that affect their health. This increased awareness will empower residents to engage in community initiatives to nurture and expand greenspaces, and to shape policy toward healthier environments. Furthermore, the project will serve as a model for other grassroots collaborations across communities affected by environmental injustice. 

The grant aims to foster collaborations between academic and community partners in the Greater Cincinnati area to emphasize equitable collaboration, generate actionable data, and support vulnerable communities in the study of health impacts of climate change.

Through these awards, Green Umbrella’s CRI, and C4H aim to foster equitable collaboration, generate actionable data, and center and uplift the voices of community members, all with the goal of creating better health outcomes in some of Greater Cincinnati’s most vulnerable communities.