The Virginia Advancing Cancer Control Equity Research Through Transformative Solutions (VA-ACCERT) Center

COMMUNITY RESPONSIVE RESEARCH PROJECTS: PROJECT SUMMARY The Virginia Advancing Cancer Control Equity Research Through Transformative Solutions (VA-ACCERT) Center will support four Community Responsive Research Projects across the five-year project period aligned with the goal of improving dissemination and implementation of multi-level cancer health promotion and

prevention services to individuals and families living within Virginia’s Department of Housing and Urban Development-administered income-based housing – communities vastly comprised of racial/ethnic minority populations with extremely low socioeconomic status yielding unjust health outcomes. Each project will be led

by an academic-community Co-Lead team and will promote iterative, rapid-cycle research that is responsive to the needs of the Center’s partnering income-based housing communities. In addition, these projects will fuel the Center’s efforts to promote the development of early-career investigators focused on cancer equity and

community-engaged research. Each academic Co-Lead for the four projects will need to meet the NIH definition of an early-stage investigator and include a senior Center-associated mentor; priority will also be given to projects incorporating pre- and postdoctoral trainees. Projects 1 and 2 will be three-year projects beginning in Year 1,

and Projects 3 and 4 will be two-year projects beginning in Year 4. Per the Notice of Funding Opportunity, only Project 1 has been fully developed and described in this application. Projects 2-4 will be selected through an academic-community-led, peer-review process and will receive design, implementation, evaluation, and

dissemination support from the Research Methods, Measures, and Data Management Core. Project 1 Summary: Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. Social drivers of health are often associated with screening uptake. Marginalized groups, such as

public housing residents, are less likely to seek and obtain CRC screening. Project 1 aims to develop a multi- level and peer-led Colon Health Champion intervention, leveraging interpersonal communication and community cohesion, to improve CRC screening awareness and uptake within public housing communities. Utilizing an

ORBIT model for behavioral treatment development, Aim 1 will use qualitative methods to collect formative data to identify critical intervention components via key informant interviews and focus groups with CRC screening age-eligible adults living in public housing communities. The Project 1 team will iterate and modify intervention

components based on focus group feedback and then identify and train Colon Health Champions to deliver the intervention. In Aim 2, a randomized controlled trial including 150 public housing residents will determine the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of the Colon Health Champion intervention, including the impact on screening

completion. Collectively, the proposed research will produce a multi-level, peer-led intervention with the potential to improve CRC health literacy and screening uptake and advance health equity among public housing residents.