Professors Wilson, Mendenhall, and others are now working to expand the Citizen Scientists approach through a new project: Centering Youth’s Health and Wellness: Designing a Third Reconstruction and Chicago Renaissance. These students and young adults will also act as Community Health Workers as Citizen Scientists to Document Health Disparities and Offer Solutions, with a generous grant of $500,000 from the MacArthur Foundation. (Co-Principal Investigator) (with Principal Investigator: Ruby Mendenhall; Co-Principal Investigators: Rachel Switzky, Robin Fretwell Wilson, Karen Simms, Brandi Barnes, Andiara Schwingel).
This project seeks to create a culture of innovation that centers the health and wellness of Black and Latinx high school students and young adults (up to age 21) living in Chicago.