Admin-Core

Harvard University D/B/A Harvard School Of Public Health, Boston MA

Investigators

Abstract

SUMMARY - ADMINISTRATIVE CORE The Administrative Core of The Massachusetts Center for Advancing Cancer Control Engaged Research Through Transformative Solutions (Mass-ACCERT) is designed to provide scientific and administrative leadership and governance to ensure an integrated and sustained focus on our aims. Co-led by an academic (Emmons) and a community-based (Clark) MPI, the Core is designed to provide strong governance, articulate our scientific vision and theme, coordinate collaborative activities across the Center and relevant partnership resources, and advance the Center’s theme through administrative support and continuous evaluation of our activities. The Administrative Core will play a critical role in ensuring that the proposed Center achieves its goals and that it is connected to the broader research and community health fields to maximize impact. The Core will also ensure that our work is well-connected with the U19 consortium and that we work well with the Coordinating Center. We have strategically designed the Administrative Core to oversee our capacity-building activities, with a Capacity-Building Team to support aims related to building effective teams to address SDOH. This effort is designed to harness the abilities held by members of the communities most affected by health disparities. Our capacity-building efforts focus on: (1) catalyzing academic-community partnerships focused on SDOH; (2) building the capacity of research teams to build coalitions and use community organizing and agenda-setting strategies as part of transformative interventions; and (3) engaging graduate students to co-lead capacity-building efforts. To achieve our goal of creating a community-partnered approach to research and capacity building to address key SDOH facing partner communities, we will: (1) develop a strong operational structure that integrates activities across the Center as well as community and academic partner assets; (2) monitor and evaluate our efforts to build an effective coalition that is committed to addressing SDOH; and (3) actively participate in cross-Consortium activities to enhance learning locally and nationally. We have integrated community partner engagement into every aspect of Mass-ACCERT, drawing on core principles of community-engaged research. Every Core or project is co-led by an academic and a community partner. We have ensured that there is balanced representation on all governance structures and review processes, and our budget reflects a commitment to shared resources. Most importantly, Mass-ACCERT is built on the foundation of a 5-year collaboration that has borne deep respect and commitment to the shared work, which will bring significant benefit to the proposed collaboration.