Outreach, Recruitment, and Engagement Core

REVISED ABSTRACT: OUTREACH, RECRUITMENT, AND ENGAGEMENT CORE The Outreach, Recruitment, and Engagement (ORE) Core will coordinate with each of the UAB ADRC Cores to address Deep South disparities in dementia by fostering community education and research on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). In our exploratory phase, we have utilized a community- based participatory research model and multiple modalities to initiate community partnerships, build trust, disseminate information, and facilitate recruitment and retention of cognitively normal and cognitively impaired individuals representing the Deep South, with an emphasis on engagement with Black/African American (B/AA) community residents. This has enabled us to recruit a cohort of individuals that is 47% B/AA. Alabama citizens in the Deep South have a history of social and economic inequities, adverse social determinants of health, as well as high rates of co-occurring medical problems, which contribute to the region's heightened incidence of dementia. We will continue and expand our targeted recruitment of individuals affected by these factors, particularly B/AA residents, for participation in ADRC activities and research. We will grow our Registry of individuals potentially interested in research. We will train and deploy teams of Community Health Advisors (CHA) to amplify our reach, with measures built in to evaluate the effectiveness of our programs. We will work with our Community Advisory Board (CAB) and Participant Advisory Board (PAB) to guide the design and refinement of our study approaches. We have developed multifaceted strategies to promote participant retention and ongoing engagement with the ADRC, which includes a robust and appropriate return of results program. We will publish on recruitment science and share strategies that have been beneficial for our Center. The ORE Core’s operations are integrally linked to interactions with the Center’s other Cores.