Community Outreach and Engagement

COMMUNITY OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT: ABSTRACT Oklahoma has the fourth highest overall cancer mortality rate in the United States. High rates of poverty, lack of health insurance coverage, obesity and tobacco use, and low rates of cancer screening all contribute to the state’s excess cancer risk. The Stephenson Cancer Center (SCC), the only NCI-designated cancer center in Oklahoma, leads efforts to decrease the state's cancer burden through facilitating scientific discovery, and by engaging with patients and communities in the statewide catchment area. SCC's Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) Core is central in this effort. COE is guided by four interconnected Specific Aims: 1) to monitor and evaluate the Oklahoma Catchment Area (OKCA) cancer burden through surveillance of cancer incidence, mortality, survival, and risk factors; 2) to engage communities throughout the OKCA in bidirectional communication to stimulate planning of cancer research and control efforts; 3) to communicate community needs to SCC Leadership, Research Programs and the Clinical Trials Office / Protocol Review and Monitoring System in order to catalyze research focusing on high-priority cancers and cancer problems affecting the OKCA; and 4) to collaboratively implement and disseminate SCC cancer control activities and policies to reduce cancer burden throughout the OKCA and beyond. Under the direction of Mark Doescher, MD, MSPH, the SCC's Associate Director for Community Outreach and Engagement, COE has achieved a strong record of creating and sustaining authentic partnerships with Oklahoma communities to address multiple cancer-related concerns. COE conducts surveillance to identify priority cancers and cancer problems having the heaviest impact on Oklahomans. COE community advisory boards enable community members to inform programmatic and research priorities for the SCC and its catchment area. Strategic plans for the next five years include expanding community-engaged research focused on addressing priority cancers across the OKCA, as guided by a logic model that includes short-, intermediate- and long-term metrics that are used to gauge progress and signal areas for future growth. COE’s cultivation of long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships with communities will continue to foster an environment that enables SCC to advance its vision to eliminate cancer in the state.