RFA-DP-24-004, PRC Core: Promoting Social Connectedness in the Most Diverse Square Mile in America

Abstract The Georgia State University (GSU) Prevention Research Center (PRC) will focus on the issue of social connectedness within the highly diverse and underserved community of Clarkston Georgia, a complex community with a high concentration of refugees, immigrants, and migrants (RIM), as well as African Americans. As described in a new advisory report from the Surgeon General, a lack of social connectedness, and social isolation and loneliness (SIL) are grave public threats to both physical and mental health, and even more so in underserved communities with vulnerable populations. The PRC will establish an administrative core within the center component that will maintain an infrastructure to support the overall Prevention Research Center, including the establishment of a community advisory board, a training component in prevention research, and a communications function. The major purpose of the center component is to support the core research project. The core research project will focus on a key implementation question in the area of social connectedness: how to adapt and deliver evidence-based interventions to address social isolation and loneliness for adults and older adults in a highly diverse population within a disadvantaged community? The project will adapt an 8-session evidence-based intervention (EBI) for social isolation and loneliness that utilizes mindfulness and cognitive-behavioral change techniques, and we will embed that intervention into ongoing community-based activities conducted by partners. The partners will deliver the EBI to 240 participants, and implementation and participant outcomes will be assessed. The team will develop translation and dissemination materials to be shared with partners locally, nationally, and via the network of CDC-funded PRCs.