ACHIEVE Community Engagement Core

ABSTRACT The overarching goal of the ACHIEVE GREATER Community Engagement Core (CEC) is to provide training and infrastructure to establish community-academic partnerships and ensure meaningful community engagement across the continuum of cardiovascular health through the primary and pilot research projects. Through establishment of a Community Review Board, the CEC will help ensure that community informed consent is included in of the center’s research projects. We will collaborate with the Implementation Science Team to engage community stakeholders in refinement of the PAL2 intervention and provide assistance with recruitment and retention should projects fall below projections. The CEC will conduct focus groups in Detroit and Cleveland to identify community cardiovascular health priority areas that will shape funding themes for the pilot projects and ensure they are locally relevant and meaningful. We will establish Cardiovascular HEalth Action Councils (CHEAC) in Detroit and Cleveland and engage community members in a formal research capacity building curriculum so they can effectively partner with academic researchers on center projects. The CEC will also partner with the Investigator Development core to support community-academic partnership on all pilot projects. We will provide early-stage investigators( ESI) with formal training to build their capacity for partnering with community members on research to address cardiovascular health priorities. Each cohort of ESIs and CHEAC members will complete our Community-Academic Partnership Study Design, Implementation, and Dissemination toolkit to guide community engagement in pilot projects. The CEC will assist with dissemination efforts by hosting research symposia and providing additional support for engaging community members in writing abstracts, preparing and delivering presentations on study outcomes. The CEC will track and monitor all engagement and dissemination activities, measure knowledge and skills developed through our capacity building efforts, and evaluate community-academic partnership formation. Collectively, CEC activities and resources will provide a sustainable model for and a new generation of community members and researchers to conduct highly impactful research focused on mutually agreed upon cardiovascular health priorities.