PNF Community Public Health Event
July 23rd, 2022
It is necessary to increase AAPIs’ participation in medical research
Written by PNF S.M.A.R.T. Club Editing Team
On July 23rd, 2022, Project Next Foundation held a big community public health event to promote the CARE Registry to local residents and increase awareness towards Alzheimer’s disease and other relevant research.
As introduced by Hye-Won Shin, PhD, Director of Asian American Outreach of UCI MIND, Alzheimer's disease has become the 6th leading cause of death in the U.S., 4th leading cause in California and 3rd in Orange County. Although Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) are recorded as the fastest growing ethnic group in the U.S., the participation rate of AAPIs in medical research is less than 1%.
Dr. Shin also stated that all medical research, especially research for Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias (with no effective cures), require more data than others, therefore we need to take actions right now! You could join CARE Registry at www.mind.uci.edu/CARE to be connected with research studies.
Our community public health event received a great deal of attention from local medias which helped spread the message throughout our community in a timely manner.
During the event, PNF staff and student volunteers arrived at 9:00 a.m. to set up the tent, tables, chairs and event materials. After a short training session, PNF volunteers worked together to inform those who walked by about the CARE Registry and encouraged them to take the survey onsite or take flyers home and complete the survey later. Additionally, volunteers with talent in arts set up a booth for face-painting and balloon making to attract families to our event. As of 20:00, our volunteers were able to distribute all 500 English flyers, approximately 100 Chinese flyers, and convinced more than 10 people to sit down and fill the survey onsite.
Despite the hot weather, everyone was working hard with passion. Our volunteers developed creative ways to promote the CARE Registry. Some of them approached AAPIs who finished their physical exercises at LA Fitness, while others stayed at the entrance of stores like Starbucks, Ralphs, and Walgreens, where more people gathered to hand out flyers.
Project Next Foundation aims to provide an exemplary learning community in Southern California that inspires and empowers Asian American youth to think mindfully and creatively, act with honor and moral courage, lead with distinction and serve with a generous spirit. We will nurture global youth citizens by building up their bodies, broadening their horizons, and devoting their knowledge and skills to society.
PNF President Jason Wu and Secretary Ms. Ariel indicated that our involvement in the CARE registry is not only due to our aligned missions in providing great opportunities for Asian American youth, but because our collaboration is also beneficial towards finding potential cures to Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia within the AAPI community. That's why we need to gather our strengths to promote the CARE Registry to as many Asian American and Pacific Islanders as we can.
One of our student volunteers who attended the event last Saturday, Sean Shih (Grade 12 student from Diamond Bar High School), shared that: "Participating in different PNF volunteer programs and CARE Registry activities and events has allowed me to learn more about things in the real world that I have never known before. Finding out that less than 1% of AAPIs are participating in research about neurological diseases was shocking. Neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, dementia, etc. are all detrimental conditions that could potentially affect your loved ones, and now that I have become aware of this issue with Asian Americans being excluded from this research, I had to take action. By participating in last Saturday’s event, I hoped to spread a message and expand the mission of the CARE Registry to the general public, to gain more support for their cause. Being able to participate in PNF and CARE Registry events has made me believe that I have made a great change in the community, simply just by passing out flyers and communicating with people for a little moment can make a huge difference."
Another volunteer, Andy Chen (Grade 11 student from Troy High School), shared that since he has been away from his grandparents for years, he missed them very much and always keen to volunteer for senior citizens in community. The opportunity provided by Project Next Foundation got him interested and involved in PNF Volunteer programs as well as the CARE project. Moreover, with the knowledge he gained from volunteer activities and informative seminars, Andy felt the urge to encourage other AAPI individuals to enroll into the registry as it would be beneficial for our loved ones and the AAPI community. He felt so grateful and glad to continue participating in further activities with the Project Next Foundation and CARE Registry project.
We now have about 100 volunteers enrolled for the CARE Registry Promotion Program, and last Saturday, we had 30 volunteers come for the event.
Read more about this event shared in the World Journal (Chinese newspaper).
You could find more detailed information about the CARE Registry program on PNF Website: https://www.projectnext.foundation/collaborative-program/care-registry. And if you would like to join PNF for more volunteer opportunities, please fill out the registration form: https://jinshuju.net/f/g2YYfj or contact PNF Secretary Ms. Ariel at 949-345-5955.
