Community Initiatives

Overview: The Clarkston Summit began as an idea by one of the founding Community Advisory Board members of the PRC, Dr. Heval Kelli. The first summit in 2018 brought together more than 100 Clarkston residents and the organizations who serve them to share, collaborate, strategize, and problem solve. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the next gathering until May of 2022, but in that time it grew to attract more than 300 attendees – 35 organizations and community leaders were led in a day of sessions, panels, and workgroups facilitated by Clarkston Mayor Beverly Burks designed to encourage community residents to express their vision and ideas for ways to solve issues in areas including employment, housing, mental health, education, early learning, resettlement, and childcare. The summit is now a regular PRC event that continues to connect Clarkston residents and organizations and provides inspiration to our team and initiatives.

Dates: November, 2018; May, 2022

Additional Funding: GSU Office of University Research and Services; the Atlanta Global Studies Center; Emory’s Office of Global Strategies and Initiatives; GSU Perimeter College Clarkston Center for Community Engagement; and in-kind services from the City of Clarkston, GSU’s School of Public Health, the Emory Trauma and Emergency Department and medical students at Grady Hospital, Grady EMS, and CDF Action.

Leadership Team: All volunteer organizing committee: Mary Helen O’Connor; Ashli Owen-Smith; Saria Hassan; Roberta Malavenda; Diana Wrenn Rapp; Temple Moore; Bracolla Peters.

Publications & Products Related to This Initiative:

• 2022 Clarkston Summit Impact Report
• Presentation summarizing the 2022 summit activities and impact

Publications & Products Related to This Initiative:

• Lyons, M. J., O'Connor, M. H., Feinberg, I., Whitaker, D. J., Eriksen, M., Owen-Smith, A., Jivani, S., Tamer, M., Kim, E., & Makor, G. (2021). Comparing the health and welfare of refugees and non-refugees at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic: the results of a community needs assessment. Journal of Refugee & Global Health, 4(1), 3.2

2021 Community Needs Assessment

Overview: The goal of the second community needs assessment was to document the ways in which COVID-19 impacted the Clarkston community. It provided needed data to City of Clarkston stakeholders and other Clarkston-serving community-based organizations to inform how they prioritized and allocated resources, particularly funds granted to cities across the U.S. through the American Rescue Plan Act. A multilingual data collection team (English, Swahili, Nepali, Arabic, Dari, Karen, Hindi, Somali, Burmese, and Amharic) surveyed 93 Clarkston residents (59.8% spoke a language other than English at home; 43.1% identified as a refugee). Respondents identified problems accessing affordable housing, healthy food, employment, and healthcare services during the pandemic. Over 70% of refugees reported that it was difficult to get a COVID-19 vaccine compared to 30.0% of non-refugees. Despite this, a greater percent of refugees (91.7%) reported having received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, whereas 58.1% of non-refugees reported having received at least one dose of the vaccine. Conducting this survey taught GSU and community stakeholders how to reach the community and ask these types of questions so that future assessments (including the 2023 needs assessment) can get the most accurate results possible.

Dates: October-December, 2021

Additional Funding: City of Clarkston

Leadership Team: Ashli Owen-Smith; Sushana Lamsal; Mary Helen O’Connor; Amelia Phan; Iris Feinberg; Khadija Abourawi; Hasset Zelealem

Publications & Products Related to This Initiative:

• View the 2021 Needs Assessment Instrument
• View the 2021 Needs Assessment Report

2023 Community Needs Assessment

Overview: The goal of the third community needs assessment was to document social determinants of health in Clarkston, as well as to explore other issues raised by the community including: exposure to neighborhood violence, perceived discrimination, and social capital/social cohesion. Results indicated that many Clarkston residents continue to struggle with access to education, employment, affordable housing, and healthcare services (particularly mental healthcare services). In spite of these needs, residents overwhelmingly feel welcome in Clarkston and report that the community has strong social cohesion/social connectedness. These findings provided additional evidence for the need to increase access to and availability of mental healthcare services in the community, as well as supported the PRC’s pivot to focusing more on social capital/social cohesion.

Dates: June-August, 2023

Additional Funding: City of Clarkston

Leadership Team: Ashli Owen-Smith; Mary Helen O’Connor; Amy Nyman; Tabeer Zehra; Azizi Pyron; Win Min Thein; Dawood Azeemy; Kaeden Tun; Nathalie Gonzalez; Saja Khader; Rahsaan Overton; Watema Emmanuel

Publications & Products Related to This Initiative:

• View the 2023 Needs Assessment Instrument
• View the 2023 Needs Assessment Report
• See a poster providing an overview of the 2023 needs assessment

Overview: The GSU PRC collaborates with the Clarkston community to identify and understand the most pressing issues and work as a team to develop initiatives and interventions to address community needs. The conversations that arose during the 2022 Summit revealed that the team needs to not only regularly engage the CAB, but also regularly engage other community members. It was decided that Community Conversations, where the team could have targeted conversations with various community stakeholders, would be the best way to do this.

The goal of the September 2023 Community Conversation was to engage community members who live in/work with residents in Clarkston, GA to discuss their experiences and explore strategies that could improve the mental health of Clarkston-based community members. This Community Conversation involved individuals representing 13 organizations including:

Dates: September 20th, 2023; May 13th, 2024

Additional Funding: Mercer University; GSU Provost Office; GSU Research Seed Grant

Leadership Team: Ashli Owen-Smith; Mary Helen O’Connor; Amy Nyman; Davielle Lakind

Publications & Products Related to This Initiative:

• View the full report from the 2023 Community Conversation
• View a guide to mental health resources generated as a result of the 2024 Community Conversation

Overview: Stop The Bleed (STB) is a hands-on course that teaches bystanders in communities how to attend to a bleeding emergency while awaiting the arrival of first responders. It focuses on empowering community members to take action in trauma emergencies by providing them with the knowledge and tools needed to act. Stop the Bleed has trained 1.5 million people nationally but aims to train 200 million. A team of academics, researchers, and community physicians led by Drs. Mary Helen O’Connor (GSU) and Randi Smith (Trauma Surgeon, Emory and Grady Memorial Hospital) adapted STB to be culturally and linguistically responsive for the diverse refugee communities in Clarkston. In addition to community residents, the entire staff of the International Rescue Committee received STB training as a result of this funding. The trainings were delivered in Arabic, Swahili, Burmese, Dari, Pashto, and Somali.

Dates: March 2022, August 2023

Additional Funding: Support for this project came from the Atlanta Global Research and Education Cooperative and the Adult Literacy Research Center.

Leadership Team: Randi Smith; Amy Zeidan; Mary Helen O’Connor

Publications & Products Related to This Initiative:

• O’Connor, M. H. (2024, January 9). Stop the Bleed, a cultural and linguistic approach to community-based emergency preparedness training [Conference presentation]. GSU 2024 Adult Literacy Research Center Mini Conference, Atlanta, GA, United States.
• Abdullahi D., Zeidan A., Koganti D., Feinberg I., O’Connor M. H., Asker S., Butler J., Meyer C., Rasheed M., Herard K., & Smith R. N. (2023). Cultural and Linguistic Adaptations of Stop the Bleed in Multi-Ethnic Refugee Communities. The American Surgeon, 89(8), 3406-3410.
• Click below to view the instructional flyers in different languages:
  • Arabic
  • Dari
  • English
  • Pashtu
  • Karen
  • Somali
  • Swahili

Overview: Refugees in the United States suffer from a high burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) with the prevalence of diabetes twice that of White non-Hispanic individuals. Prevention and management of diabetes can be complicated by cultural practices and norms, knowledge and beliefs, and misinformation. The Clarkston community has requested diabetes care for many years. At one healthcare center in Clarkston, the prevalence of uncontrolled diabetes (HbA1c>9%) among their nearly 400 patients with diabetes was 33% and only one third had a HbA1c less than 7%. This project implements and evaluates a comprehensive diabetes management clinic in Clarkston for a diverse population. Preliminary results showed favorable impact on diabetes control. Challenges have included the need for additional care services: ophthalmology, podiatry, dentistry, addressing mental health needs, and food insecurity. Future work will need to expand the study sample to investigate effectiveness based on change in HbA1c and secondary outcomes of quality of life and diabetes self- efficacy, expand services to facilitate referrals for comprehensive eye exam and dental care, and partner with local organizations to address food insecurity and mental health needs.

Additional Funding: The Atlanta Global Studies Center; Emory Global Diabetes Research Center

Leadership Team: Saria Hassan; Ina Flores; Amy Zeidan; Mary Helen O'Connor

Overview: The Community Based English for Academic Purposes program was piloted on the Clarkston campus of GSU prior to initiating. The immense unmet need in the community for high quality, intensive English instruction drove the pursuit of Congressional earmark funding with the assistance of the District 6 Office of Congressman Hank Johnson. Congressman Johnson has been a tireless supporter of the needs of Clarkston and supportive of the needs of new arrivals to the community. Funding was secured to provide comprehensive English courses on the Clarkston campus for non-native speakers of English who are establishing new lives and pursuing educational and employment opportunities in the community. To date the program has served 306 individuals in 23 sections. The program is structured with 5 levels leading to English proficiency for application and admission to higher education. Several individuals who completed the program have applied for and been admitted to local universities to complete degrees (Bachelor’s, LLM, etc.).

Dates: 2023 - present

Additional Funding: US Department of Education

Leadership Team: Mary Helen O’Connor; John Bunting; Robin Cathey

Publications & Products Related to This Initiative:

Click HERE for more information

Overview: The purpose of this project was to develop health education materials that are linguistically and culturally tailored to the needs of the RIM communities in Clarkston, Georgia, and specifically for Burmese-speaking communities, and to increase HIV/AIDS awareness and understanding in these communities by using educational tools that are culturally- and linguistically appropriate. To that end, we first reviewed existing materials aimed at increasing HIV/AIDS awareness among the RIM community, which revealed gaps in resources tailored to this group. Initial educational materials were developed in English by synthesizing current HIV-related information from evidence-based sources (CDC, NIH), and then were translated into Burmese. A focus group with bilingual English-Burmese participants was conducted to ensure that the translation was culturally and linguistically appropriate, as well as clear and accurate. The materials were then revised accordingly, printed, and distributed to local healthcare clinics.

Dates: May-August, 2023

Additional Funding: N/A

Leadership Team: Win Min Thein; Ashli Owen-Smith

Publications & Products Related to This Initiative:

• View a poster summarizing this work
• Click below to view some of the pamphlets created as part of this project
  • Burmese
  • English

Overview: In 2020, a City of Clarkston resolution was approved to create the Early Learning Task Force. This resolution outlined the purpose of the Clarkston Early Learning Task Force (CELTF): "The City Council desires to create programs and services with community partners to engage residents, caregivers, and policy makers to create equitable policies, practices, and programs so that every young child enjoys safe, nurturing, and playful learning environments. The mission is to research, discuss, and create practical, innovative, and equitable practices, policies, and programs designed to further enhance early learning in Clarkston." The CELTF addresses policy issues as well as serves as a catalyst for innovative programs developed with partners. Programs and activities include, but are not limited to:

• The annual Clarkston Tell Me a Story! Festival
• The Clarkston Friendship Forest Story Walk
• The Enhanced Child Development Associate Program
• The Child Care Navigation Initiative
• The Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL)
• Partners Early Learning Dialogue

CELTF has addressed a number of policy issues, including family childcare zoning, use of the I-94 in lieu of a birth certificate to determine CAPS (Georgia's childcare subsidy program), and advocating for increased state funding for the childcare subsidy program and for the removal of tax credits for diapers. CDF Action serves as the facilitator for the CELTF, and members are appointed by the City of Clarkston Council. Partners include families, individuals committed to early learning, childcare center representatives, and other community representatives plus two City Council members. The meetings are open to the public.

Dates: 2020 - present

Additional Funding: City of Clarkston

Leadership Team:  Ashli Owen-Smith; Roberta Malavenda

• Lyons, M. J., O'Connor, M. H., Feinberg, I., Whitaker, D. J., Eriksen, M., Owen-Smith, A.,Jivani, S.,Tamer, M., Kim, E.& Makor, G. (2021). Comparing the health and welfare of refugees and non-refugees at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic: the results of a community needs assessment. Journal of Refugee & Global Health, 4(1), 3.

Overview: Preventive maternal and reproductive health care among refugee and immigrant women is inaccessible and not culturally sensitive, resulting in profound health disparities including higher rates of preventable cancers and chronic and infectious disease. To address community requests from partners and clinicians for more preventive health for women by female providers, female GSU Nurse Practitioner students, who were trained in culturally responsive care, provided preventive care at Grace Village Clinic to female patients. Services were free of charge and included labs, STD screenings, and referrals for specialty care. An evaluation of the Women’s Health Project provided actionable data for clinicians to understand barriers to care for women in the community. A graphic showing some of the results is shown below.

Dates: November, 2020 - present

Additional Funding: Healthcare Georgia Foundation

Leadership Team: Mary Helen O’Connor; Iris Feinberg; Meckdaly Xayavongsa; Zeytun Yahya Tobe Yubo; Michelle Mavreles Ogrodnick

Publications & Products Related to This Initiative:

• View the Impact Report

Overview: In response to a request from PRC community partner Ethné Health, the PRC team conducted a community analysis of the dental needs of community members. Dental health has been one of the most severe and most difficult health disparities to address in Clarkston. Ethné is a non-profit clinic providing culturally sensitive primary care in Clarkston and was making plans to expand services by opening a dental clinic. The data gathered from this study informed their strategy for the opening of the new clinic. The assessment involved interviewing community health workers (key informants) along with community members from a wide range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Key takeaways included: community residents do not use dentists for preventive care, cost and lack of insurance prevent residents from accessing care even when serious problem arises, children are receiving regular cleanings and preventive care, and there is an absence of in-language educational materials available.

Dates: 2022

Additional Funding: N/A

Leadership Team: Mary Helen O’Connor; Iris Feinberg

Publications & Products Related to This Initiative:

• View a presentation on Dental Health Equity
• View a short report on the Dental Needs Assessment

Overview: Understanding the complex interplay and associations among service providers, community organizations, community leaders, and residents became a priority for the PRC as work in Clarkston began. The goal of this work was to identify how communication and resources are shared in a densely populated community where more than 60 languages are spoken and residents come from vastly different educational, cultural, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Members of the CAB (community advisory board) and PRC faculty worked to map out the relationships among service providers, individual community leaders, and other organizations working in the community by interviewing stakeholders and mapping relationships among them. Our goal is to work towards understanding the most efficacious peer-delivery network to disseminate our applied research findings.

Dates: 2021

Additional Funding: N/A

Leadership Team: Mary Helen O’Connor; Meck Xayavongsa; Iris Feinberg; Rich Rothenberg

Overview: The PRC is fortunate to be supported by a wide range of healthcare providers including clinics and clinicians working in the community. These clinicians provide critical insight into the overall healthcare needs of community residents. Based on feedback from clinicians, priority concerns about effective communication with patients were identified including diabetes, hypertension, and the importance of preventive care. A toolkit of culturally and linguistically adapted health information videos were designed to communicate in 12 languages about the most frequently diagnosed health issues clinicians were finding in their patient population. These videos were developed in partnership with community residents and use plain language and health literate guidelines to effectively educate patients about their health needs. Clinicians and community residents also identified the need for translated medication instructions. All of these tools are free and available on the internet for providers to use in their healthcare facilities.

Dates: 2020-present

Additional Funding: Georgia Health Foundation

Leadership Team: Iris Feinberg; Mary Helen O’Connor

Publications & Products Related to This Initiative:

• Access the Health Information Toolkit.