Community Engagement Core

Modified Project Summary/Abstract Section The objective of the Border Biomedical Research Center (BBRC) Community Engagement Core (CEC) is to serve as the focal point for engaging with the community, enabling investigators to effectively address the health-related concerns of the Borderplex region. This will involve synergistic and strategic collaborations to facilitate participant recruitment and retention, and the dissemination of findings of the proposed basic, clinical, and behavioral research projects. The augmented community engagement efforts and the growing network of community partners, combined with the CHW model, will act as the impetus behind the CEC’s proposed initiatives in this application. The BBRC’s unwavering commitment to decisively improve health outcomes serves as the driving force for the CEC’s interconnected three Specific Aims: 1) Establish the UTEP BBRC Training and Research Institute for Community Engagement (TRICE) to increase dissemination efforts by building the capacity of community health workers and lay community health volunteers (LCHVs); 2) Develop and offer a certificate program for community members to become lay community health volunteers (LCHVs) to expand outreach and dissemination efforts to improve health outcomes in the region; and 3) Create a coalition to gain broad community level input that will facilitate the translation and dissemination of findings and inform sustainable community and system-level changes to address Hispanic health. The innovative approach in addressing Hispanic health, exemplified through the proposed establishment of the TRICE and the development of the certificate program for lay community health volunteers (LCHVs) will contribute significantly to increased community-academic collaborations and expand outreach efforts in the Borderplex region. Additionally, the TRICE will support the Community Engaged Methods unit of the Research Capacity Core and will work with the NIMHD funded (1P50MD019494) Center for Investigator Training and Community Engagement in Transdisciplinary Minority Health Disparities Research to conduct faculty trainings to build the capacity of investigators to conduct research with the community. Notably, the CEC’s commitment to foster and expand healthcare system partnerships to collect biospecimens along with collaborations with federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), non-profits, and academic institutions has increased community engaged programs and established the foundation for BBRC related clinical and behavioral research. These strategic engagement, outreach, and dissemination efforts have demonstrated the BBRC’s strength in building trusted and mutually beneficial long-term community partnerships to facilitate research, the transfer of knowledge and participant recruitment. Lastly, the establishment of a Hispanic health for all coalition will contribute towards providing data to regional policy makers to facilitate sustainable community and system level changes to address Hispanic health in the region.