The Charles Drew University Clinical Research Center/UCLA/RAND Project Export mission is to establish the knowledge base necessary to reduce diabetes, depression and other related health disparities among low-income African Americans and Latinos. This center will accomplish its mission by bringing new vitality to the field of health disparities research via in-depth community participation alongside academia. The Export team consists of physicians, researchers, and community leaders who are committed to serving this large, impoverished minority community. Project EXPORT is unique in its mutually beneficial partnership that has begun between Drew faculty and high quality researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Medicine, the UCLA School of Public Health, and RAND; organizations which have nationally recognized research expertise and evaluation tools, but often lack trusted ties with the community.

The Drew/UCLA/RAND Project Export brings important strengths to the field of health disparities research. The center is established in Los Angeles County, one of the most culturally diverse counties in the United States, and one with major concentrations of disadvantaged minority groups. Los Angeles is characterized by a diversity of low socioeconomic communities of Latinos and African Americans who suffer from alarmingly high rates of morbidity and mortality. The area of south central Los Angeles, where Drew is located, and other surrounding areas is characterized by some of the lowest educational attainment, family income and insurance coverage rates in the entire country. Reports from the Los Angeles County Health Department have demonstrated the need for Project Export to address the dramatic health/education disparities among the Latino and African American communities in comparison to the rest of the county.

The Specific Aims of the Drew/UCLA Export Center are to: 1) Promote the conduct of methodologically rigorous research aimed at reducing disparities in diabetes and depression that are related to the health of low-income African Americans and Latinos; 2) Build our research capacity and provide formal training in academic and community based settings for researchers at Drew University/ UCLA/RAND; 3) Increase the participation of medically underserved minorities in evidence based health promotion and disease research; 4) Disseminate results of relevant efficacy studies and health information in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner to this target population, community based health care providers, the broader academic community and health policy makers.

There are seven specific cores identified within the project, identified below. Additional information on each core can be found on this website. 1) Administrative; 2) Community; 3) Methods; 4) Instrumentation; 5) Research; 6) Training; 7) Pilot Projects

Via the work being done by each core, Project Export is determined to build bridges in minority health where huge gaps currently exist by training, educating, and implementing pilot programs within the struggling Latino and African American communities of Los Angeles who are battling with disease.