# Community Engagement and Urban Agriculture: Addressing Concerns About Toxicants in Soil, Water and Plants

> **NIH NIH P42** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · 2020 · $132,452

## Abstract

Core Summary/Abstract
The Community Engagement Core (CEC) facilitates bi-directional knowledge exchange between our Superfund
Research Center (SRC) and local communities to reduce cumulative impacts, improve nutrition and lower health
disparities in disadvantaged neighborhoods of San Diego County, Imperial County and the U.S.-Mexico border
region including rural and tribal lands. By empowering youth, conducting workshops, collaborating with
communities to develop further research and interventions, developing culturally responsive multimedia science
communication tools, and modeling innovative best practices in community engagement, the CEC extends the
reach and impact of the science and technological innovations emanating from our SRC. The CEC builds the
capacity of vulnerable communities in U.S. EPAs Region 9 and part of Mexico to identify, prioritize and resolve
environmental and public health issues related to environmental exposures and Superfund toxicants. The
overarching goal is to help prevent toxicant exposure, narrow health disparities, reduce NAFLD and TASH
susceptibility, reverse the escalating increase in NAFLD and minimize the risk of TASH, especially in
communities that are predominantly Hispanic and Native American. Utilizing an integrative, Sustainability
Science, place-based approach with a strong commitment to civic engagement, the CEC will build on our existing
community-university partnerships. We will work at sites where, for the past five years, we have been directing
best practices in community engagement for exposure prevention and intervention. We are co-designing these
interventions through bidirectional interaction with our community partners facilitated through our main
community partner the Global Action Research Center in San Diego. The CEC will share SRC science and
technology through participatory neighborhood-based educational workshops, trainings, citizen science, youth
leadership development, and cumulative impact risk communication. Our approach is rooted in sustainable urban
agricultural practices (community gardens and food forests) and the installation of green infrastructure (e.g.,
ecological landscape and biotic modifications) designed to manage/harvest stormwater and urban runoff in ways
that reduce the amount of, and exposure to, urban toxicant contaminants.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9903336
- **Project number:** 5P42ES010337-19
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Keith Pezzoli
- **Activity code:** P42 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $132,452
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9903336

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9903336, Community Engagement and Urban Agriculture: Addressing Concerns About Toxicants in Soil, Water and Plants (5P42ES010337-19). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9903336. Licensed CC0.

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