Outreach & Engagement Core

Cancer is the second leading cause of mortality for Native Americans.1 In Arizona (AZ), only the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Tribe have Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funding through the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program to provide breast and cervical cancer screening and diagnostic services. The San Carlos Apache Tribe and the Tohono O’odham Nation use tribal funds to provide cancer education. Despite the overwhelming need for cancer related services and the Partnership for Native American Cancer Prevention’s (NACP) accomplishments in building program capacity, the remaining 18 of the 22 AZ Native Nations have no sustained cancer support programs or trained patient navigators to promote screening, explain treatment options and support cancer patients and their families. This persistent gap is linked to challenges in securing external funding and limited availability of patient navigation training specific to Native American clients. In collaboration with tribes, NACP is well positioned to build on the expertise of the Hopi Tribe and Navajo Nation to enhance capacity among other AZ Native communities ready for robust cancer control programming to address structural and individual barriers to cancer care. The Outreach and Engagement Core’s (OEC) long-term goal is to strengthen AZ Native Nations’ capacity and infrastructure to provide sustained, community-based cancer education, screening and care services to advance cancer health equity. In the next cycle, OEC will continue integrating Indigenous and non-Indigenous worldviews to leverage community assets to address community needs, an approach being adopted throughout NACP called the two-eyed seeing approach.6 The objectives of the Core’s proposal are to: a) enhance tribal health department expertise in cancer education and patient navigation through training, inter- tribal, peer-program mentoring, and program development, and b) increase access to and application of information generated by NACP funded research projects, as well as state and national resources. A guiding principle of the OEC is collaboration, specifically the continuation and expansion of partnerships with institutional partners, Native Nations and Native American-serving entities to build regional capacity through coalition building, supporting tribes’ own efforts to bring cancer related services to their citizens, and mentoring NACP investigative teams to disseminate relevant research results to Native Nations. Aim 1. Enhance AZ Native Nations’ cancer patient navigation capacity through CHR training and mentorship across the cancer care continuum. Aim 2: Facilitate a national Intertribal cancer network to build programmatic knowledge, funding, and infrastructure for AZ’s tribal cancer related activities. Aim 3. Mentor and guide NACP research teams in effective community-based dissemination and application of research activities through enhanced training.