Community Outreach and Engagement

COMMUNITY OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT: ABSTRACT The Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center (LCCC) Consortium is committed to reducing the cancer burden and improving cancer outcomes through close collaboration with communities in its catchment area. To achieve this goal, the LCCC Community Outreach & Engagement (COE) office supports multiple cancer-related activities across the cancer care continuum, including needs assessment and dissemination, community engagement, prevention and control, screening and early detection, community education, facilitation of catchment-area research, and influence in cancer-related policy changes. The LCCC catchment area represents a population of approximately 6.5 million people comprising Blacks (25%), Hispanic/Latine (23%) and a rapidly increasing Asian population (13%). This area includes DC and surrounding counties in Maryland and Virginia; and Bergen County and its surrounding counties (Passaic and Hudson) in Northern New Jersey (NJ) with widespread cancer and cancer risk burdens. Led by Chiranjeev Dash, PhD, MBBS MPH and Lisa Carter-Bawa, PhD, APRN, the COE office includes a bilingual staff representative of catchment area communities. COE activities are guided by the LCCC strategic plan, supported by input from external stakeholders and community members comprising the Community Advisory Council, and are conducted in close collaboration with LCCC Research Programs and CRTEC. The Specific Aims of COE are to: (1) identify and monitor the cancer burden and risk factors within the LCCC catchment area; (2) conduct cancer-focused outreach and engagement to disseminate and implement evidence-based research and policy in the LCCC catchment area and beyond; and 3) facilitate catchment area-relevant research with special emphasis on understudied populations. COE activities across aims are focused on catchment area priorities of improving breast, lung, gastrointestinal, hematologic, and prostate cancer outcomes, increasing cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment within the catchment area, facilitating community-engaged translational research on smoking cessation and genetic counseling and testing, increasing participation in therapeutic and non-therapeutic clinical trials, and promoting healthy survivorship across the lifespan.