“Building Bridges to Optimum Health” is an ongoing series of community partnered participatory research projects directed toward educating the community and creating an opportunity for interaction between the lay community, community based organizations, health care providers, the department of health services and academic medical centers. The health of the South Los Angeles community has been the driving force in building the community bridges. Major health disparities are discussed by community and then organized through a collaborative academic/community process. This has led to community educational seminars on topics ranging from preterm delivery, women’s health, clinical research, research ethics, memory disorders, mental health, childhood asthma, environmental health, violence, chronic kidney disease and diabetes. These collaborations have also enabled new relationships between community and academia that have created new strategies to deliver effective educational messages, creating criterion for conducting the highest quality evidenced based research and providing care. The development of new research strategies has been generated through community input and published in the medical community bringing a new awareness and validity to the process.