REACH Center Community Engagement Core

George Washington University, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY - COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT CORE The REACH Center Community Engagement Core will develop and apply strategies for catalyzing the cocreation of REACH Center climate and health research projects and study outputs in support of policy decision-making and implementation. By serving as a bridge between REACH Center academic investigators and multiscale stakeholders, the Core will build trust, transform solutions, and speed implementation through integration of community input and involvement into Center activities, including its investigator-initiated research projects, pilot projects, and student fellowships. The CEC will engage with a variety of actors and end-user communities who are positioned to take health-protective actions, including those at all levels of governance and facets of civil society. This includes civic organizations that represent communities such as mayoral associations, regional government associations, health and hospital systems, environmental organizations, and disease-focused associations, as well as federal, state, and local governmental agencies. Rather than focusing on a single or small set of community groups, the CEC focuses on providing tools and frameworks that build capacity for developing targeted, collaborative teams between investigators and end-users that have the knowledge, skills, experiences, and agency to create change. The Core will initiate and facilitate codesign strategies for developing and applying the outputs of scientific investigations that inform healthprotective solutions for climate-sensitive risk factors. To do so, the Core will create researcher/end-user teams by matching REACH Center research project and pilot award academic investigators with relevant community groups, advance scientific literacy and awareness of environmental risk factors and human health links through communication and outreach strategy support, and integrate community engagement across REACH Center Cores. The Core will also evaluate formative REACH Center engagement and communication strategies between investigators and potential end-users of research project outputs in the co-generation of policy-relevant research questions and products to further advance to a Center of Excellence. This will be accomplished by developing a set of evaluation metrics for select research and pilot project teams based on shared objectives of researchers and end-users, and identifying successful engagement processes and infrastructure needs for further catalyzing use of REACH Center research products in federal, state, and local policy contexts. The Community Engagement Core will empower REACH Center investigators to develop community-engagement skills and access networks of end-users that allows for the application of scientific insights and tools in policy decision-making, design and implementation. These activities will establish a pipeline of research activities capable of generating community-centered findings and supporting the implementation of durable health-protective policy solutions for climate-sensitive risk factors.