The American Institutes for Research and Spencer, Doris Duke Charitable, and William T. Grant foundations have announced nearly $2 million in grants in support of research-practice partnerships focused on disparities in youth outcomes.

Awarded through the 2021 Institutional Challenge Grant initiative, grants of up to $650,000 were awarded to Johns Hopkins University, Northeastern University, and the University of California, Santa Cruz in support of public-private partnerships aimed at addressing challenges such as youth suicide, youth employment, and educational inequality. To that end, Johns Hopkins will work with Fort Belknap Indian Community to develop culturally responsive interventions aimed at preventing suicide among Nakoda and Aaniih adolescents and young adults; UC Santa Cruz and the United Way of Santa Cruz will partner to reduce educational disparities among low-income, Latinx middle and high school youth and first-generation Latinx UCSC undergraduates; and Northeastern University will collaborate with the City of Boston's Department of Youth Engagement and Employment to reduce income disparities among local youth through the Boston Summer Youth Employment Program and other year-round workforce development programs.

In addition, the W.T. Grant Foundation will supplement a grant to Cornell University's College of Human Ecology — which received the first Institutional Challenge Grant in 2018 — in support of an ongoing collaboration with Cornell Cooperative Extension–Tompkins County aimed at reducing racial and ethnic inequities around access to effective opioid treatments and services, and to make institutional changes that foster community-engage research.

"Even as vaccines bring hope for an end to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is much to be done to address the social problems it has laid bare," said William T. Grant Foundation president Adam Gamoran. "Both research institutions and nonprofit organizations will have key roles to play in rebuilding society in the years to come. Innovative universities that support partnerships between researchers, policy makers, service providers, and communities will go a long way toward enhancing their public impact."