Welcome to L.A. CAPRA!
The Los Angeles Community Academic Partnership for Research in Aging (L.A. CAPRA) Center is a collaboration between the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Charles Drew University, City of Los Angeles Department of Aging (DOA), and Partners in Care Foundation. The L.A. CAPRA Center was created in 2010 with a grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA).
Our unique academic–community partnership is rooted in deep mutual respect and a shared vision for implementing and testing practical evidence-based interventions to empower older adults to stay as active and healthy as possible. With our interdisciplinary scientific team and vast network of community partners, the L.A. CAPRA Center provides critical infrastructure to facilitate and implement community-partnered research across the (arguably) largest and most ethnically diverse urban center in the United States. With partner Multipurpose Senior Centers in every single council district (15) across Los Angeles – we have potential to reach 669,747 seniors aged sixty years and older with our innovative programs.
The mission of the L.A. CAPRA Center is to:
- Provide a stable infrastructure to support ethnically diverse academic-community partnered research across greater Los Angeles;
- Utilize this infrastructure to launch and test innovative programs that will create meaningful sustained improvements in the quality of life of lower income older adults;
- Translate research findings into practical community-based programs to improve quality life of lower income older adults;
- Facilitate the adoption, implementation and maintenance by the Department of Aging of effective and empirically-proven community-based programs; and
- Secure resources for long-term sustainability of the Center.