Read about our news and latest updates

Hello SHARP friends. Yes, the year's almost over. I don't have the just-right-words to reflect on 2020, so I'll just say this: It's been hard. On so many levels. I hope that first and foremost you have been able to stay healthy, mentally and physically. I hope that you have been able to stay connected. As for me, like many parents, I'm working two jobs--my own and managing my kids' online learning. It's been a year of watching the Black Lives Matter movement unfold nationally, and moms like me trying to answer all our kids' (and our own) "why" questions about the long list of Black men and women killed by police. And in the midst of 2020's turbulence, we lost a hero, our Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman. I hugged my boys, still in their Black Panther pajamas, and let them know that while Chad has passed on, Black Panther is a symbol of self-love and courage we can carry with us always.

There's a SHARP walk about what the Black Panthers meant to our community in the 1960s and 70s. "They were for the Black Community," one walker said passing the site where the Panthers' Fred Hampton's People's Memorial Clinic used to be. "They wanted literacy, they wanted kids to read, they fed them," the other walker said. "They wanted land, they wanted jobs, they wanted homes." These were acts of self-love, caring for what is ours, and therefore nothing short of heroism. I recently gave a talk, "Black Joy Matters in Aging Research," which I'll link later in this newsletter. In it, I shared about a US study using the Central Republic of Congo's Ngoma Ceremony for stress reduction. "Ngo" means "strength of the panther," and "ma" means "to give." The Ngoma approach reduced participants' depression and anxiety and improved their social well-being.

Yes, 2020 was and still is quite a year. I hope that the good news filling this newsletter will be a bright spot, like the new SHARP grant, the upcoming SHARP talk on Nov. 19 with SHARP Pioneer Ms. Karen Wells joining us for Q&A, accolades for SHARP's own Dr. Sara King and Juell Towns, and the good memories we hope to stir up with the images in the "Remember Together" section. As we remember our resilience and as we look to a new year, may you be given the strength of the panther--the self-love and courage--to face whatever comes next. 

--Dr. Raina Croff, SHARP Principal Investigator, OHSU 

SHARP Awarded New Grant!

We've been awarded funds from OHSU's Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute (OCTRI). During the 2021-2023 grant period, we'll be refining the SHARP walking application (so it finally works like its supposed to!) and testing it with 9 participants. We'll be adding an actigraph watch (like a very smart step-counter) that each participant will continuously wear and that records steps, sleep, and other measurements. We'll also be adding an under-the-mattress sleep sensor for each participant and a weekly online survey. Adding these new devices will help us test if the SHARP program helps people sleep better and helps them be more active overall. But first and foremost, we are testing if adding these devices is helpful, if the community wants them, and if they add to our understanding of the benefits of the SHARP program. 

And there's more good news...

We're starting up a partnership with University of California, Davis (UC Davis) and the African American Museum and Library in Oakland! We're going to start off with community interviews, and then search the archives for images of Oakland Black history from which we will create 10 Oakland SHARP walks. We are SUPER excited about expanding SHARP to Oakland Black communities!  

Next - meet the new SHARP mentors!

Introducing new SHARP mentors,

Drs. Lisa Barnes, Hiroko Dodge &  David Johnson

Upcoming Marquam Hill Lecture – SHARP in November

November 19th, please join us for:

Nov. 19, 2020 | 1 PM PT | Redrawing Story Lines: Improving Health for Older African Americans in Changing Neighborhoods

Raina Croff, Ph.D.

Assistant professor of Neurology and medical anthropologist Dr. Raina Croff is the first researcher to document the cognitive impacts of gentrification on older African Americans in Portland's historically Black neighborhoods and to devise a therapy - combining neighborhood walks with active reminiscence - to forestall memory loss while aiding older residents in reclaiming their sense of place, self and social connection. SHARP Pioneer Ms. Karen Wells will share her thoughts in the live Q&A after the talk!

OHSU News features SHARP viewpoint piece:

Reclaiming Stories, Health and Self

Older Black Portlanders stake their claim through OHSU study

Healthy, Hearty

Autumn Eating 

In this time of Thanksgiving, the SHARP team is grateful for YOU.

Thank you SHARP Participants. You are truly appreciated.

May our stories weave a beautiful portrait of community - past, present, and future.

Dr. Sará King’s MoMA Science of Social Justice article and

Podcast Interview

Former SHARP Research Assistant,

Juell Towns,

Receives Wins Award to Travel the World!!

Remember Together

Do you have an old photo you'd like us to feature in our next newsletter's Remember Together section? Email it to fullerp@ohsu.edu 

Recorded SHARP Talks

We have a new talk!

Dr. Croff was selected to give Washington University (in St. Louis) Alzheimer's Disease Research Center's Annual Norman R. Seay Lecture. Her talk,

"Black Joy Matters in Aging Research"

was heard by attendees across the nation. Mr. Seay was an African American civil rights activist in St. Louis and highly engaged in the Congress of Racial Equity (CORE), starting in the 1947. He and CORE organized sit-ins more than a decade before the famous Woolworth lunch counter sit-in in 1960, and Mr. Seay and CORE led the Bank protest to hire Black tellers, and much more. 

Below, you can access the October 13th Norman R. Seay Lecture

and more about Mr. Seay's activism. 

Community Advisory Council Opportunity

The Knight Cancer Institute's Community Outreach and Engagement program is interested in recruiting additional advisory council members who serve the African American community or are of African American descent. The Knight Cancer Institute's Community Health & Research Advisory Council (aka 'The Council') is currently comprised of those who represent underrepresented populations around the state or who identify as someone from a minority population in Oregon, although we are lacking representation of the African American voice and experience. 

The Council plays a critical role in providing guidance to both OHSU and the Knight Cancer Institute in the following ways:

• Recommend, based on publicly available data and members' on-the-ground experience and knowledge, cancer priorities for the Community Outreach and Engagement program, and thereby Knight Cancer scientists.
• Provide a forum for effectively navigating and working with communities for relevant and beneficial research.
• Collaborate directly with Knight Cancer scientists. 

In our upcoming November meeting, we will facilitate an appreciative inquiry session between Council members and Knight scientists who represent larger Knight programs. The ultimate purpose of this (ongoing) facilitated collaboration is for: trust and relationship building, learning more about where proposed research and community needs coalesce/overlap, idea generation, and potential focus areas for funding of the researcher (via internal Knight Community Outreach & Engagement funds) and/or community organizations (via the Knight's Community Partnership Program: https://www.ohsu.edu/knight-cancer-institute/community-partnership-program-grants).

If you are interested in learning more after reading this summary, we are happy to schedule a time to talk with you over the phone or video to answer questions and give more detail. 

Paige Farris - farrisp@ohsu.edu

Steven Blakesley - blakesls@ohsu.edu

Thank you for considering this collaborative opportunity.

OHSU Aging Well Study

Seeking Research Volunteers

A research opportunity has come to the Layton Center. The Aging-Well Study uses technology to measure activity in the home, with the hope of helping people remain independent as they age. By participating in this four-year long study, you’ll be contributing to the development of technologies that aim to increase the quality of life of older adults.

Update on the

"In Our Right Minds" Documentary

Local & National Resources

PreSERVE Coalition for Black Memory and Brain Health is a local Portland group that holds live and virtual community events to inspire healthy aging, brain health, and other support resources. PreSERVE also serves as the SHARP Study's Community Advisory Board. You're welcome to join our monthly event planning group - for more information please contact fullerp@ohsu. You can visit the PreSERVE website by clicking below. 

Library Support:

Caregiver Support:

• (Virtual) Family Caregiver Support Group for the Black Community
  • Shellmire Unlimited Professional Counseling Services presents a 10-week family caregiver support group starting November 17th. The group sessions will be covering a variety of topics from caregiver self-care to decision-making, and everything in between. The space is limited, so make sure to register before it fills up.

        If you're interested, click on the button for more information.

• Reach out to Alzheimer’s Association 1-800-272-3900. This is a free call (24 hours a day 7 days a week, confidential and with a professional) - will just listen; can connect you to resources; answer questions; offer to meet with you and provide customized information and support; can be contacted in an on-going basis.

• Oregon Care Partners offers free, online and in-person, trainings and education for family caregivers throughout the state, call 1-800-930-6851.

• ADRC has many caregiving resources available: Check out their website or call 1-855-ORE-ADRC.