ENGAGED - Medical Rehabilitation Research Center - Community Engagement & Outreach Core

University Of Illinois At Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

Modified Project Summary/Abstract Section COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND OUTREACH CORE The Community Engagement and Outreach Core (CC) will coordinate the national outreach and engagement needed to advance community-engaged rehabilitation research to address social determinants among people with disabilities. The CC will work closely with the Research Project to incorporate the perspectives of people with disabilities across all phases of the research process. The CC will engage relevant stakeholders, including disability-focused organizations, academic institutions, researchers, clinicians, and the public, through a targeted set of aims. Specifically, the CC will: Aim 1: Center the voices and the lived experience of people with disabilities through the formation and integration of a Community Advisory Board into all aspects of the ENGAGED center. Our CAB will be comprised of representatives from national and medical rehabilitation organizations. The CAB will inform ENGAGED Center’s activities from planning through dissemination. Aim 2: Develop and sustain a national Community of Practice network amongst researchers, clinicians, community members, and other rehabilitation research stakeholders. We will invite disability-focused centers and organizations, academic institutions, public health agencies, researchers, clinicians, and the public to participate in our Community of Practice. We will build community through research and practice seminars, training, listserv, and monthly virtual networking meetings. We will provide training and consultative services on tailoring community-engaged research for disabled populations. We will curate and disseminate resources such as past webinars and training modules on our center’s website. Aim 3: Catalyze, advance, and disseminate rehabilitation research through national scientific conferences. Our center will host two virtual and one hybrid scientific conferences for our Community of Practice during the funding period. We will also host one hybrid meeting in collaboration with other MRRCs and the NIH. These events will stimulate collaborations among MRRCs and researchers across the nation. The CC will serve as the central hub for incorporating the perspectives of all rehabilitation research and services stakeholders into all aspects of the center to increase the capacity of the medical rehabilitation field to conduct research that is responsive to the needs of people with disabilities. The impact of the CC is further extended by fostering external collaborations to enhance the development, implementation, and dissemination of community-engaged rehabilitation research, thereby increasing functional performance and participation among people with disabilities and improving health outcomes. A key innovation of our CC lies in closing the knowledge gap faced by disability scholars and practitioners in designing tailored interventions and adapting evidence-based interventions to promote positive health, medical rehabilitation, and participation outcomes among individuals with disabilities.