Description:

This opportunity represents a collaboration between the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute and InCHIP. This award provides up to $10,000 for a pilot study conducted by UConn Faculty in the areas of health equity, human rights, and social justice. We anticipate that two projects will be funded. Eligible projects may employ a qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods approach. Projects that integrate arts- or narrative-based approaches will also be eligible. Pilot projects funded through this mechanism should act as a preliminary stage that informs a proposal for external funding.

Conceptually, health equity, human rights, and social justice are highly interrelated. Below we provide applicants definitions of each construct to clarify our intent with this opportunity below.

• Health Equity: Health inequities are population-level health differences in health outcomes that cannot be attributed to biology alone and therefore are unfair and unjust, in accordance with "internationally recognized ethical and human rights principles" (Braverman 2011). Health equity is a goal that seeks to eliminate health disparities and facilitate the ability for all individuals and communities to have equal opportunity to live long, healthy, and productive lives (NIMHD).
• Human Rights and Health: All humans have a right to health within the human rights framework. The right to health asserts that all humans are entitled to services and freedoms that enable them to attain the highest attainable mental and physical well-being and health status.
• Social Justice and Health: Social justice emphasizes the need for just treatment, equal social status among people, and fairness in the distribution of rights, resources, and opportunities throughout society. Social and structural conditions directly or indirectly impact individuals' health. Therefore, a social justice approach to health emphasizes how rights, resources, and opportunities affect health and how health and healthcare are components of the broader dialogue around social justice, equality, and equity.

Health research rooted in a health equity, human rights, and/or social justice approach confronts inequities associated with race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability status, residence in underserved areas, low socioeconomic status, and/or other forms of inequity, typically using an intersectional approach. Studies in this area foreground the voices, experiences, and perspectives of individuals and communities representing the population of interest whether empirically, through research collaboration, or in other ways.

Potential Research Topics include but are not limited to studies that:

• Research that explores and addresses contextual barriers that disparately impact health outcomes, such as feeling safe in one’s neighborhood or having access to transportation, clean air, or healthy food.
• Research that explores the ways cultural, ideological, or social constructs and beliefs act as barriers, facilitators, or protective factors for communities that experience health disparities.
• Research that emphasizes improving health literacy, access to primary healthcare, or access to or quality of healthcare more broadly.
• Research that explores or measures the disparate impacts of policy on health outcomes (and the variables associated with health outcomes) across different populations.
• Projects that emphasize training and developing clinical providers and students to be better advocates.
• Research that explores human rights mobilization, social justice, or social movement-based approaches toward policy change around health issues such as vaccine policies, reproductive healthcare, or violence prevention.
• Work that explores the relationship between public institutions, such as education or housing, as spaces of intervention, prevention, or resource allocation that could better serve specific populations.
• Research that addresses environmental injustice and fosters resilience through identifying and engaging key stakeholders and disciplines in health equity-related research on climate change.
• Projects that work toward developing community-based interventions and strategies that address structural racism and discrimination's impact on health.