NNLM AoU Community Award: Increasing Digital Literacy in Communities Underrepresented in Biomedical Research

The project’s goal is to increase the public's digital literacy (DL) to enable awareness of health resources, focusing on African American (AA) communities, who are often underrepresented in Biomedical Research. The increasing digitization of health information presents challenges in communities where DL and digital health literacy (DHL) rates are low—an issue that has been compounded by extensive health misinformation during the pandemic. This project will increase DHL by raising the low levels of DL within AA communities. To maximize impact, BGHF will expand its current College Ambassadors Program and send College Ambassadors (CAs) to train fellow community members. This project will be an expansion of the BGHF College Ambassador Program and will leverage all established health literacy program strategies while adding the additional aspect of DL as a critical channel in health literacy. By March 2022, BGHF will host a series of DL workshops in partnership with local libraries in: Atlanta, Harrisburg, New Orleans, and Oakland. These are Hubzones that have large number of lowincome households. We recognize that DL is a cross-generational issue, BGHF will design agespecific DL curricula for Young adults ( 18-35), middle-aged adults (ages 36-55), and older adults (55+ years). These workshops will train participants in safe web browsing, discuss trustworthy knowledge sources (including NNLM resources), and detect misinformation. It will also equip participants with basic DL skills—e-mail setup, social media engagement, etc.—that will increase their professional capabilities. Additionally, all workshops will also incorporate valuable information related to the All of US program.