Community Outreach and Engagement

Columbia University Health Sciences, New York NY

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

The mission of the Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) Office of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) is to reduce cancer burden and health disparities in its Catchment Area, an eight-county region characterized by a significantly higher proportion of Black, Hispanic, foreign-born, and low-income residents compared to the US. The 12-member HICCC Community Advisory Board (CAB) helps to guide the HICCC’s priorities and COE’s work to promote research addressing Catchment Area’s needs and engaging the community through educational, research, and policy initiatives. COE works across the Catchment Area to: (1) monitor cancer burden to develop targeted programs that address health disparities in cancer prevention, screening, treatment, and mortality, including access to clinical trials; (2) increase through outreach availability and accessibility of evidence-based cancer prevention and control resources; (3) facilitate relevant and impactful research by leveraging the four HICCC Research Programs, using community-based participatory research approaches and stakeholder engagement; and (4) bi-directionally engage with communities to support implementation and dissemination of education, research, and policies that address cancer burden. Parisa Tehranifar, DrPH, and Phoenix Matthews, PhD, co-direct the COE Office and provide complementary leadership. Tehranifar oversees monitoring and outreach, while Matthews leads facilitation of research and bidirectional engagement. COE efforts are evaluated regularly by the CAB, HICCC leadership, and HICCC External Advisory Board to ensure continued alignment with the HICCC’s mission and Catchment Area priorities. Since the last submission, COE facilitated the acquisition of additional NIH, New York State, and foundation grants with non-research components to support community partners in the Catchment Area to reduce cancer health disparities. COE enhanced integration with the Research Programs and alignment in Catchment Area relevant research, utilized data science methods to expand targeted programs, and facilitated funding for expanded health disparities research. COE’s impact is demonstrated through connecting uninsured and underinsured individuals to services including the Manhattan Cancer Screening Program, delivering nearly 250 workshops in English and Spanish to 5,287 people, disseminating 52 newsletters to 3,637 people in English and Spanish, and working with 74 HICCC Members to facilitate community-responsive research, community talks, and scientific publications. Additionally, COE has trained 34 community scientists about cancer research and secured over $300K in funding for small non-profit organizations. The HICCC COE interacts extensively with other NCI Cancer Centers (Albert Einstein, Mount Sinai, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and New York University) and New York City institutions (City University of New York and Hunter College). Moving forward, the COE Office will amplify its impact via the 2025-2030 Strategic Plan through collaborations with New York City public hospitals.