Community Engagement Core

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT – Community Engagement Core Community engagement is essential for developing, conducting and disseminating research on the prevention, treatment and management of chronic condition disparities in BIPOC communities. Despite the 130 billion dollars invested annually in health research in the U.S., health disparities for racial/ethnic minorities are real, persistent, and significant in Minnesota and nationally. A portion of this discrepancy may be because of limited community engagement in designing and conducting research, and limited dissemination of research results to community, practice, and policy settings. The Center for Chronic Disease Reduction and Equity Promotion Across Minnesota (C2DREAM) seeks to reduce disparities in cardiovascular disease and the related chronic conditions of hypertension and obesity experienced by Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) communities in Minnesota. C2DREAM will focus on the pressing need to identify ways that racism and discrimination at interpersonal, structural, and intervention implementation levels function as a driver of disparities in chronic disease risk and outcomes across BIPOC communities in Minnesota. To support the success of the goals of C2DREAM a proactive community-engagement infrastructure is needed, co-led by a coalition of expert regional stakeholders, to develop critical and anti-racist community engagement processes and disseminate relevant and actionable information and findings to stakeholders across the region. The Community Engagement (CE) Core’s overarching goal is to support the activities of C2DREAM by building the strong foundation of critical and anti-racist community engagement practices needed to meaningfully address the drivers of disparities in chronic disease risk and outcomes across BIPOC communities in Minnesota. The CE Core will support the activities of C2DREAM by building a regional community and academic Coalition to offer guidance and input on engagement and dissemination (Aim 1). We will then build a strong foundation of critical and anti-racist community engagement practices academic and community stakeholders (Aim 2). We will guide community engaged informed dissemination throughout C2DREAM (Aim 3) and finally, using RE-AIM we will evaluate CE Core activities. (Aim 4). Our engagement and dissemination processes are based on evidence of best practices in knowledge transfer and communication: that evidence is most likely to be used by the end-users when they are engaged early in the process, when the evidence is communicated by a credible messenger, and when the evidence is presented in formats that enhance the likelihood of impact. The CE Core will generate sustained impact by creating an innovative infrastructure for community engagement and dissemination on research on the prevention, treatment and management of cardiovascular disease and the related chronic conditions of hypertension and obesity, particularly in relation to health disparities impacting BIPOC communities.