Community Engagement Alliance Against COVID-19 Disparities (CEAL)

CEAL CHW/CHR Promotora focus groups

CHWs/CHRs Promotoras know their community best! We know as CHWs/CHRs Promotoras, you have been working really hard to serve your clients the best way you can. Your ideas and opinions will be used to develop and culturally adapt COVID-19 educational materials and health education messages for CHWs and CHRs to use with your clients about the prevention of COVID-19, including COVID-19 vaccines and COVID-19 research. Once developed, we will invite you to receive the materials and training in how to use them with your clients.

CEAL’s mission

To address health disparities during COVID-19, The National Institutes of Health has awarded $12 million for outreach and engagement in ethnic and racial minority communities disproportionately affected by the pandemic. The NIH has called their 11-state alliance the Community Engagement Alliance Against COVID-19 Disparities, or CEAL. Teams in Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas have received initial funding to create CEAL programs immediately.

Led by the University of Arizona, The Arizona CEAL COVID Consortium consists of teams from Northern Arizona University, Arizona State University, Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale and the University of Arizona. Co-principal investigators, are Sabrina Oesterle from ASU, Samantha Sabo from the Center for health Equity Research at NAU, Chyke Abadama Doubeni from the Mayo Clinic effort and Floribella Redondo Martinez from the Arizona Community Health Workers Association.

Their  goal is to conduct community-engaged research and outreach to increase COVID-19 awareness and education among communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and to reduce misinformation and mistrust.

They also will promote nationally developed information resources and a clinical trial patient registry.

NAU co-investigators are Regents’ Professor Julie Baldwin, CHER director, Nicolette Teufel-Shone, associate director of CHER, Naomi Lee, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, assistant professors Linnea Evans and Amanda Pollitt in the Department of Health Sciences and CHER, Heather Williamson, assistant professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy and CHER and Joseph Mihaljevic, assistant professor of SICCS.

Please visit this page often for CEAL updates!