Justice, Community, Capacity & Equality

JUSTICE, COMMUNITY CAPACITY AND EQUITY CORE Abstract The Justice, Community Capacity and Equity (JuCCE) Core provides services that stimulate, promote and advance the conduct of innovative Community-Engaged Research (CEnR) by CIRA scientists and community research partners. The JuCCE Core achieves its mission through outreach, relationship and capacity building, and by providing guidance on CEnR and Implementation Science (IS) methods, particularly as they relate to small urban areas with a high prevalence of HIV. To effectively achieve the national Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) goals requires moving beyond “science for the sake of knowledge”, towards an impact-driven approach designed to achieve equity in the national HIV response. Researchers working with impacted communities must have the appropriate tools to conduct IS and CEnR that optimizes equity in the impact of research on EHE goals. Rigorous IS, conducted through an equity lens, is key to maximizing the effectiveness of evidence- based interventions to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS. Critically, we must center the needs of disproportionately impacted communities and organizations that serve them throughout the research process. The JuCCE Core facilitates research collaborations with organizational-level and individual-level stakeholders of populations that have not equitably benefited from scientific advances in HIV prevention and treatment. Participatory and critical social science approaches will be leveraged to strengthen community capacity to participate in the conduct of research and to benefit from research advances, producing more equitable scientific impact on local HIV epidemic responses. HIV prevention and treatment impact is most urgently needed in small urban areas and EHE priority communities that lack the capacity of large urban settings to provide highly effective and culturally relevant status neutral HIV care (i.e., HIV prevention and treatment services across the continuum regardless of one’s HIV status). CIRA’s Community Research and Implementation (CRI) Core—on which the JuCCE Core is built—has made important regional impacts through its leadership of the New England HIV Implementation Science Network and is well-positioned to continue its impact in New England while also providing services to affiliates conducting research in underserved EHE regions. The Core’s scientists are deeply committed to ethically responsible and responsive CEnR as a primary principle of social justice and health equity. Collectively, we have worked in health clinics, housing developments, prisons, churches, community-based organizations, AIDS service organizations, and legislative chambers. Recognizing the necessity of community partnership in developing research priorities, conducting research, and disseminating findings, we are dedicated to facilitating these skills among our affiliates through training, consultations, and connections. .