Community Engagement Core

Modified Project Summary/Abstract Section

U.S. communities that are rural / low-income experience persistently high rates of adverse health outcomes. These communities will also disproportionately experience extreme heat and poor air quality event-induced health impacts as extreme heat and poor air quality events causes extreme temperatures, weather events, and poor air quality. The community health centers (CHCs) serving these communities are uniquely positioned to intervene to address these impacts. The perspectives of CHC patients, providers, and staff and other community organizations working for extreme heat and poor air quality events impact mitigation are critical to developing strategies that CHCs can implement to prepare for and mitigate extreme heat and poor air quality event-induced health impacts in the populations they serve. To solicit these perspectives, the Community Catalyst Center’s Community Engagement Core (CEC) will conduct extensive community engagement activities foundational to the Center’s central theme of identifying effective CHC-led interventions to address extreme heat and poor air quality event-induced health impacts. The CEC will create, engage, and continuously evaluate a transdisciplinary multidirectional learning community with expertise in varied domains relevant to such impacts, through a Community Advisory Board (CAB) comprised of three interactive advisory committees (health system stakeholders, scientific experts, and community organizations focused on extreme heat and poor air quality event mitigation). CAB committees will collaborate to identify interventional strategies that CHCs may implement to prepare for and mitigate extreme heat and poor air quality event-induced health impacts. Concurrently, we will collect and analyze observational, interview, and focus group data from patients and staff at six varied CHC organizations to identify the mechanisms through which CHC-led interventions could mitigate these impacts. The CEC will work closely with the Research Program Core (RPC), as the CAB members and CHC patients and staff will react to the RPC’s Aims 1-2 results on asthma and hypertension exacerbation associated with extreme heat and poor air quality events in CHC populations, and their emergent questions will inform the RPC’s Aim 3 analyses. CEC activities will yield a community-generated agenda for future Center research on CHC interventions to mitigate extreme heat and poor air quality event-induced health impacts and the support that CHCs need to sustainably implement proven interventions. The CEC will disseminate and advance this agenda in collaboration with the CAB and the RPC using varied mechanisms, including supporting the development of proposals for external funding led by Center-cultivated community-researcher partnerships. This agenda, together with the results of the RPC Aim 3 analyses, will inform the development of CHC-prioritized future Center research.

Grant Number: 1P20MD019799-01
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: KAREN ALBRIGHT