The mission of Health Equity, Opportunity, and Education Laboratory, or the HOPE Lab, is to conduct community-engaged, people-centered, justice-oriented research to advance health and educational equity, improve opportunity, and implement change in our communities. Through research in our primary foci, the HOPE lab seeks to understand the interdependence of health, development, education, occupation, participation, and opportunity across the life course. Chronic diseases exert disproportionate influences on youth, impacting development, education, participation and life opportunity. The HOPE lab is particularly interested in disrupting patterns of systemic injustice by (1) identifying and naming the ways in which systemic racism and structural inequities impact outcomes for youth with chronic conditions, and (2) addressing the complications of chronic diseases and the unidentified impacts these conditions have on everyday functioning for youth in community and educational contexts through the development and implementation interventions to support youth with chronic diseases.
In the HOPE Lab, we believe
- health and educational equity & justice are essential for us all to reach our full potential both collectively and individually
- community driven research is necessary to fully understand and address inequities by prioritizing the lived experience and expertise of impacted individuals
- it is necessary to build the diversity, inclusion and representativeness of the research workforce to adequately support these goals and our communities
