Outreach

Our U54 Outreach Core will facilitate the successful translation, implementation, and dissemination of research findings developed by U54 investigators. We build on the community relationships, strategies, and partnership developed during the P20 Planning period. Success of our P20 planning was due to the leadership of Dr.

Christopher Sistrunk, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center (CoHCCC) and Dr. David Lo leader of the U54 Center for Disparities at University of California, Riverside (UCR). Together, these investigators used “reverse translation” to bring community engagement to the bench scientists. Traditionally, shared resource

cores support research activities by providing cutting-edge tools, facilities, and well-skilled faculty to advance research. Yet there is often a gap in resources and knowledge on how research teams can ensure the translation of their findings from the basic science level (the “bench”) to the community and, also, from the community to

the bench. Thus, the bidirectional potential of translational research has rarely been fully optimized. Building on the success of our P20 and U54 UCR Center for Disparities we aim for our UCR-CoHCCC U54 partnership to optimize the bidirectional potential of true community partnership. Community needs, as articulated by

engagement, is typically not directly obtained by bench scientists, and may explain the limited translation of research findings to communities that are most adversely affected by cancer.1-2 Subsequently, there is a marked lack of access and awareness of scientific data by community members and limited knowledge of community

need and context by scientists. This inadequate dissemination, lack of data access, and increasing gap between scientists and communities, limits the impact of scientific discoveries, particularly in racial/ethnic minority communities. Our U54 Outreach Core moves beyond traditional community engagement to foster rigorous bi-

directional, evidence-based strategies to narrow the divide. Aim 1 will facilitate the integration of the community engagement across UCR-CoHCCC U54 research projects/pilots and cores. Aim 2 will provide technical assistance and training to community stakeholders so they can engage UCR-CoHCCC U54-sponsored research

projects and cores. Aim 3 will facilitate the translation and dissemination of UCR-CoHCCC U54 findings to address knowledge gaps across the cancer health disparities continuum.