Community Outreach and Engagement

Abstract Community Outreach and Engagement
Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) activities of COHCCC are led from the Center of Community
Alliance for Research & Education (CCARE), which was created in 2006 in response to Catchment Area cancer
burden and health disparities. COHCCC‘s overall goal is to enhance COE impact by fully integrating and
amplifying community outreach and engagement throughout the COHCCC and its Catchment Area. Our
Catchment Area encompasses the Southern California counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San
Bernardino totaling 18 million Californians who are among the most ethnically diverse population in our nation.
The COE team facilitates community-scientist-clinician collaborations for community engagement in cancer
prevention and COHCCC research. COE’s work is informed by population-level data and our community health
needs assessments and by guidance from our multiethnic Community Advisory Board (representing the four
counties of our Catchment Area) and by the COHCCC Director and Leaders. During this cycle, COHCCC heavily
invested in COE, creating a robust COE team that includes four new staff, four faculty affiliates, and twelve
Faculty Champions.
Highlighted COHCCC COE accomplishments: Expanded and deepen ties with community partners (CAB)
towards reducing Catchment Area cancer burden and disparities targeting two key priority areas: common
cancers (colorectal, breast, lung, prostate), and preventable cancers (cervical). We also prioritize unique cancers
with disparities (liver, myeloma). COE facilitated Catchment Area responsive research in all five COHCCC
Programs (see Table 5). COE championed minority accrual efforts within the Clinical Trials Office, contributed
to our diversity strategy (PED), and informed training and education (CRTEC) diversity workshops. Using a
“Train-the-Trainer” approach, the COE team led 78 workshops training >550 advocates, clinicians, and
navigators to increase community cancer prevention (e.g., smoking cessation) and screening and trained 105
multiethnic navigators to improve community research awareness and participation in clinical studies.
COE Specific Aims are: Aim 1. Identify and attend to cancer burden, risk factors, societal determinants of health,
and community health needs within the COHCCC Catchment Area. Aim 2. Build capacity for community driven
cancer prevention/control and implement community responsive interventions and screening to reduce cancer
burden across the lifespan. Aim 3. Mobilize COHCCC Catchment Area and equity focused research. Aim 4.
Expand policy engagement on access to care and clinical studies within and beyond our Catchment Area. For
the next cycle, these reach of these aims will be expanded using communication and digital technology and
through implementation and team science approaches for greater community reach and service to reduce
Catchment Area cancer burden and disparities.

Grant Number: 5P30CA033572-42
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: Kimlin Ashing