The long-term objective of the Community Core is to develop a community laboratory with capacity to conduct population-based community studies of risk factors, prevention, incidence, prevalence, natural history, treatment and rehabilitation of cerebrovascular disease in targeted African-American communities. The Core will initiate identification and organization of communities and datasets, which will provide the foundation for an array of studies of cerebrovascular disease in high-risk populations. Initial activities will be focused on three urban counties - Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton - and on three rural counties - Evans, Jenkins and Bulloch. The Community Core will have the six following specific aims: 1) Identify target populations to serve as community laboratories for population-based studies of cerebrovascular disease, 2) develop data collection systems of surveillance of cerebrovascular disease and its risk factors as well as documentation of clinical endpoints for clinical and preventive studies, 3) create and customize mass media and local strategies to organize and educate target populations, 4) organize the target communities as the conduit for interventions, 5) develop evaluation strategies for process and outcome variables, using designs involving appropriate comparison groups to allow testing of specific hypotheses, and 6) identify feasible and important projects, which can be carried out in the Community Core. The Core will draw upon the successful history of Morehouse School of Medicine in establishing and implementing community-based, health-related programs. The Core will also work closely with the Database Core and with biostatisticians and epidemiologists to ensure proper study design and sound data interpretation. At the end of phase I, the MSM-SPIRP will have a clear outline and timetable of a community laboratory for the study of cerebrovascular disease. It is anticipated that numerous research projects studying the burden, risk factors, prognosis, therapy and post-stroke care will use this Core in phase II.