Jackson State University was recently awarded a five year contract to implement the Jackson Heart Study (JHS) Community Outreach Center (CORC). The contract period is from 8/16/2013-8/15/2014 for a total amount of 3,086,081. The CORC is an expansion of the highly successful operation of the Community Partnership Office (CPO), in the Jackson State University Coordinating Center, which operated from 1999-2013. During the era of the CPO, relationships and partnerships were developed with over 100 churches, community based organizations, governmental agencies, private non-profit organizations, other institutions of higher learning and individual partners. A community based participatory research (CBPR) component has been added under this new contract period.