Urban Initiative for Child and Adolescent Health Research and Equity (UICare)

Introduction

The Urban Initiative for Child and Adolescent Health Research and Equity (UICare) was formed in 2020 to unite our world-class faculty, state-of-the-art resources, and long-term community partners to catalyze transformational research that advances systems-level change and mitigates health and social inequalities.

The mission of UICare is to support scientists across UIC to conduct transdisciplinary research that serves as a catalyst for achieving population-level improvements in child and adolescent health in urban communities.

UICare’s recent needs assessment identified barriers to child health research including:
– Lack of pilot funding to advance transdisciplinary child health research
– Research training and mentorship silos that limited the availability of support structures critical to the success of researchers from minoritized communities
– Duplicative and fragmented infrastructure related to the unique challenges of conducting child health research
– Insufficient collaboration in child health research addressing the multidimensional nature of system forces.

To address these issues, UICare expanded its membership to include child health leaders from across UIC and the Chicago area.

UI CARE

1) UIC has wealth of nationally recognized faculty conducting cutting-edge research on child and adolescent heath within urban contexts.
2) UICare leverages existing child/adolescent health research initiatives to foster strong community research engagement, intra-campus collaboration, and synergy across UIC’s colleges to develop and implement novel transdisciplinary research.
3) Emphasis is placed on eliminating long-standing pernicious racial and socioeconomic inequities undermining the health and well-being of historically marginalized groups that comprise the majority of Chicago’s 2.7 million inhabitants.

Introduction

UI CARE

1) UIC has wealth of nationally recognized faculty conducting cutting-edge research on child and adolescent heath within urban contexts.

2) UICare leverages existing child/adolescent health research initiatives to foster strong community research engagement, intra-campus collaboration, and synergy across UIC’s colleges to develop and implement novel transdisciplinary research.

3) Emphasis is placed on eliminating long-standing pernicious racial and socioeconomic inequities undermining the health and well-being of historically marginalized groups that comprise the majority of Chicago’s 2.7 million inhabitants.