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GRANTS Dr. Robert Ward, art, received a grant from Very Special Arts Louisiana to conduct a Summer Art Education Workshop. Paulette Cappel, social work, received a grant for a Youth Violence Prevention Project from CenturyTel on February 17. Paulette Cappel, in collaboration with Emerging Scholar Lauren Jordan, submitted a grant proposal entitled PASS (Promoting a Safer School) to Walmart. Lesa Lawrence, received a $7,000 Pharmacy Administration Educational Fund from Bayer Corporation and AstraZeneca. The Pharmacy Administration Educational Fund is designated to facilitate the educational development of pharmacy graduate students. Currently, there are 19 students in the Masters and Ph.D. program. This fund will help send these students to upcoming conferences. First, there is the International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) Conference in May, 2004, and the Southern Pharmacy Administration Conference in Fort Lauderdale in June, 2004. Four of the students have posters accepted for presentation at the ISPOR conference and the department plans to send at least three students to the Southern PharmAD Conference. As for the funding, Bayer Corporation gave us $2,500 and AstraZeneca gave us $4,500. Lesa Lawrence and Shravanthi Gandra, graduate student, have a poster accepted for presenation at ISPOR titled, "Assessment of Patient-Reported Outcomes among Osteoarthritic Patients."
The Center for Business and Economic Research, in conjunction with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals recently received the Louisiana Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) grant in the amount of $274,000. The purpose of the BRFSS is to collect uniform, state-based data on preventive health practices and risk behaviors linked to chronic diseases, injuries, and preventable infectious diseases in our country. The center has been working under a series of continuing annual contracts since 1990, and hopes to continue into the foreseeable future. This grant will allow the center’s work to continue to the fullest extent. “The data we collect through the interviews will allow comparison of Louisiana to other states, and will be used to provide insight on how to allocate scarce public health dollars within the state,” said Dr. Jerry Wall, Director of the CBER. CBER maintains a 16-station telephone-surveying center with state-of-the-art computer-aided telephone interviewing software and hardware. They currently employ 35 student interviewers, two supervisors, two supervisor / interviewers, and two full-time administrators. This year, the center is expected to collect interviews from 9,000 carefully selected Louisiana residents. The current contract calls for 1,000 completed interviews from each of the nine Louisiana Public Health Districts. For more information on the Center for Business and Economic Research, contact Dr. Jerry Wall at (318) 342-1215.
The ULM Older Worker Program recently received a Senior Community Service Employment Project grant for $558,300 from the National Council on Aging, and a Workforce Investment Act grant for $163,148 from the Louisiana Department of Labor. Through both grants the Older Worker Program assists seniors by providing job placement assistance and on-the-job training for people age 55 and older who want to enter or re-enter the workforce. The Senior Community Service Employment Project began at ULM in 1979 and the Workforce Investment Act in 1989. “We usually assist and work with approximately 400 people per year,” said Elizabeth Yielding, Older Worker Program director. Seniors can get help in resume development, job search, referrals, training, and assistance getting housing or even medicine. “We have an average permanent job placement of approximately 125 people per year,” said Yielding. The program covers 12 area parishes and works with over 250 employers per year. The grant also allows to pay some of the economically disadvantaged applicants to work temporarily at public and non-profit agencies for 20 hours per week. This way the enrollees can receive on-the-job training and the public or non-profit organizations have free workers. “We have about 88 people whose salaries we pay while they work at minimum wage 20 hours per week while we help them seek unsubsidized employment,” said Yielding. The six Older Worker Program staff members spend a great deal of time talking with employers and attempting to find the right job for each particular individual. “Many employers actually contact us when they seek employees simply because we are very effective in screening and providing individuals who are suited to a particular position,” said Yielding. “They are becoming more aware of the fact that an older worker has a lifetime of experience and usually subscribes to the old work ethic regarding hard work, loyalty, and dependability.” For more information about the ULM Older Worker Program contact Elizabeth Yielding at (318) 342-5533 or toll-free at 1-800-256-1493.
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