Equity and Climate Opportunities for Health (ECO-Health) Center: Community Engagement Core

ABSTRACT (CE CORE)
The Community Engagement (CE) Core advances the scientific mission of the ECO-Health Center by closing
the gap between research and practice through equitably engaging with California’s most disproportionately
impacted communities in all aspects of the Center’s research activities. Including communities in research that
seeks to address resources, policies, practices, and programs relevant to their well-being ensures that their
experiences and perspectives shape realistic interventions in ways that successfully mitigate the health
impacts of climate change. There is growing evidence that CE approaches are effective in the public health
arena. The CE Core will incorporate the Environmental Health Literacy framework to broadly facilitate CE
research to advance health equity in the face of a changing climate by advancing the level of literacy across
various climate health topics and promoting the mutual and bi-directional exchange of information, ideas, and
expertise between community members and climate health researchers. CE is particularly important for
strengthening the ability of scientists and communities to collaborate on climate-health research on the social
and structural context, including material need insecurities and the built environment. We will implement three
Specific Aims. Aim 1 will integrate community perspectives into high-impact climate-health research on social
and structural factors. To achieve this aim, we will partner with community stakeholders to inform ECO-Health
scientists on the most pressing issues to incorporate into climate and health research through a statewide
needs assessment, and develop the ECO-Health Community Advisory Board (CAB) to obtain relevant
community input to strengthen the design, implementation, and dissemination of research. Aim 2 will increase
community access to high-impact climate-health science on social and structural factors. With support from the
CAB, we will review, synthesize, translate, and disseminate cross-cutting climate and health research findings,
products, and approaches to facilitate their application by community members, community-based
organizations, healthcare professionals, and policy makers. We will also provide technical assistance, training,
and support to scientists and communities so both may contribute to and apply ECO-Health research findings.
Aim 3 will foster community-engaged research. We will support CE research that increases community
participation, empowerment, and influence in all phases of research, from design, implementation, and
analysis to dissemination through collaborative, sustainable, and equitable processes. We will support the
Community-Partnered Action Research Pilot teams and other ECO-Health scientists through capacity building,
including a tailored approach to developing R-level NIH proposals. Through implementing these aims, the CE
Core will support transdisciplinary ECO-Health scientists to thoughtfully engage with communities to formulate
and conduct research projects, interpret and disseminate the findings, and foster research that is prioritized by,
meaningful to, and respectful of people who are most affected by climate change.

Grant Number: 1P20MD019994-01
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: Emily Arnold