Community Engagement Core: Community Engagement will include Dialogue, Advocacy, and Research (CEDAR)

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Fred Hutch/University of Washington/Seattle Children’s Cancer Consortium (the Consortium) catchment area includes all of Washington State (WA) and includes 7.6 million individuals, of whom 32.7% are from minoritized racial/ethnic groups. 1.2% are American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN), who experience a disproportionately high level of cancer incidence and mortality. While the 29 federally recognized Tribes in WA represent diverse, culturally and contextually distinct communities, they share cultural resilience which offers a stable foundation for addressing cancer disparities in partnership with the Consortium. The Consortium offers innovative, novel approaches to addressing cancer prevention, treatment, and care. The Consortium’s Office of Community Outreach and Engagement (OCOE) established the Indigenous Cancer Health Equity Initiative (ICHE-i) program in 2022 to partner directly with AI/AN communities. Through Indigenous knowledge and value systems, ICHE-i relies on the AI/AN centered approaches of relationality, sustainability, and holistic perspectives to expand research capacity for Tribal, academic, and research partnerships. We propose to deepen Tribal partnerships and strengthen connections to our Consortium to respectfully engage with Tribal communities in support of cancer priorities and impactful cancer research while centering Tribal sovereignty. Reducing the cancer burden among AI/AN people represent our primary mission, requiring improvements in access to cancer screening, cancer care, and research in partnership with AI/AN communities. To eliminate cancer screening disparities and heal distrust in cancer research with AI/AN people, our Community Engagement with Dialogue, Advocacy, and Research (CEDAR) activities using community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles. Through this project, we aim to: Aim 1. Partner with AI/AN communities to support Tribal needs assessments, identify priorities, and develop sustainable community and system-level changes. Aim 2. Use an equitable, bidirectional approach to implement culturally grounded education, programs, and medical care to reduce the cancer burden for AI/AN communities. Aim 3. Coordinate engagement and dissemination activities with Tribal members, partner organizations, relevant service organizations or policymakers, and the scientific community.