Community Engagement Core

Modified Project Summary/Abstract Section

ABSTRACT- COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT CORE

Arkansas has persistent and profound cancer and cardiovascular disease burdens that impacts rural and low resource counties. Efforts to eliminate the place-based burden of chronic diseases must include the residents who are most impacted, in addition to caregivers, practitioners, academicians, and other stakeholders. The Community Engagement Core of the Center for Research, Health and Society builds on the solid research and partner engagement foundation established by the Arkansas Center for Health, the Office of Community-Based Public Health, and the Translational Research Institute’s Community Engagement Core at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. The goal of the Community Engagement Core is to maintain and expand a broad-based coalition of regional stakeholders who are engaged in partnerships that result in novel chronic disease health research whose results are disseminated and translated to inform sustainable community and societal-level changes. The Community Engagement Core will create a critical mass of community-academic partnerships that have the skills and capacity to engage in research from idea conceptualization to translation of relevant research findings. The Core will expand its coalition of partners in the Northwest, Highlands, and Delta regions of the state through its Community Health Impact Conference, career enhancement activities, and the Community Based Organization Capacity Training. The Community Advisory Board will provide consultations to academic researchers to facilitate new community-academic partnerships that result in novel and community relevant funded research in collaboration with the Investigator Development Core. In collaboration with the Administrative Core, the Community Engagement Core will use concept mapping, geographic information mapping, and community asset mapping to inform strategic plans for dissemination and translation. Our mixed methods are grounded in the Meaningful Community Engagement Framework, the Knowledge to Action Framework, and the Integrated Framework for Community Engagement. The Core seeks community change by promoting participation in research, facilitating access to skills building and networking opportunities, and supporting shared decision-making that builds trust, improves the utility of research results, and ultimately improves health. It is expected that the Core’s synergistic approaches will result in research findings that translate into changes in society and environments that eliminate chronic diseases in our target regions and beyond.

Grant Number: 5P50MD017319-05
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: Keneshia Bryant-Moore