Center for Latino Health Research Opportunities-CLaRO - Community Engagement & Dissemination Core

Project Summary/Abstract Latino populations in the US continue to experience health disparities, particularly in substance abuse, violence/trauma, HIV/AIDS, and mental health (SAVA+MH). For underserved Latinos in Miami-Dade County (MDC), poverty and lack of access to health care have adversely impacted health outcomes, exacerbating

SAVA+MH health disparities in these communities. MDC is the most populous county in Florida, and it is home to 2.7 million residents, of which 71% are Latino, making it the largest metropolitan area in the US with a Latino majority. New research efforts and strategies are needed to ameliorate health disparities affecting the large

population of underserved Latinos in South Florida; a well-trained, and diverse, multidisciplinary health disparities workforce is needed to address this critical public health issue. Thus, the proposed CLaRO Community Engagement and Dissemination Core (CEDc) aims to integrate community stakeholders in the

collaborative training of early-stage investigators (ESI) to address Latino SAVA+MH health disparities using equitable implementation science strategies. These efforts aim to produce (a) innovative, community-engaged research to reduce Latino health disparities, and (b) new community-engaged strategies to facilitate translation

of findings into community settings. The CEDc and its Community/ Scientific Advisory Board (CSAB) will collaborate with CLaRO’s Investigator Development Core (IDc), and leverage support from our network of community stakeholders, to train ESI at the University of Miami (UM) and Florida International University (FIU).

CEDc activities will help these ESI develop plans for implementation of evidence-based interventions and other research in a collaborative manner that engages the community; CEDc training efforts will include collaborating to develop strategies to facilitate dissemination of Pilot Project findings into target communities. The following

CEDc Specific Aims will be accomplished through the mutually beneficial and long-standing collaboration between FIU and the UM as CLaRO. Aim 1: To convene the CLaRO CSAB to serve as an advisory board to CLaRO’s Pilot Project Program and mentor CLaRO Pilot Awardees. The CSAB will collaborate and guide Pilot

Awardees on existing factors that may act as barriers or facilitators in accelerating uptake and implementation of evidence-based interventions (EBIs) that address SAVA+MH health disparities among vulnerable Latino subgroups. Aim 2: To leverage the CLaRO CSAB to facilitate community engagement among (a) CLaRO Pilot

Awardees and other trainees and (b) community stakeholders that serve local Latino communities. Aim 3. To facilitate an effective, equitable, and collaborative dissemination plan for CLaRO Pilot Projects that (a) engages community members, partnering organizations, service providers, and other stakeholders in sharing and

translating Pilot Project findings with the community, and (b) assist Pilot Awardees in creating culturally tailored SAVA+MH dissemination strategies in collaboration with target communities.