Community Engagement Core

University Of Michigan At Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY: COMMUNITY ENAGEMENT CORE The Center’s Community Engagement Core (CEC) effort will use a multifaceted approach to engage a diverse audience of stakeholders to change behavior, inform management decisions, and identify policies that could be proposed to address the effects of climate change on cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms (cHABs) and human health in the Great Lakes region. The CEC will (1) strengthen environmental literacy, (2) disseminate and implement scientific research findings, and (3) both identify and address research gaps by engaging with key and diverse stakeholders (e.g., decision makers, agency staff, students, local business, media personnel, diverse and underrepresented watershed residents). The Center’s goal is not only to understand cHABs risk more thoroughly, but via the CEC to (1) prevent future issues by informing management and policy levers and (2) reducing or eliminating harm by engaging with individuals that have increased risk of exposure to cHABs. This engagement approach will be guided by Sea Grant leaders from Michigan and Ohio (Drs. Triezenberg and Winslow; Associate Director and Director, respectively) and a dedicated cHAB Extension Educator. Drs. Triezenberg and Winslow, and their teams, have years of experience designing and deploying informal outreach and formal education programming that help resource managers (1) use ecosystem-based approaches to manage land, water and living resources in coastal areas; (2) implement sustainable economic and environmental development practices and policies; (3) implement hazard resiliency practices to prepare for, respond to, or minimize coastal hazardous events; and (4) develop outreach products and tools that advance environmental literacy and workforce development. The CEC will leverage the Center’s research enterprise to recruit and train a diverse next-generation of OHH scientists via the numerous NSF programs, fellowship programs, and hands-on “camp” experiences for high school students supported at members’ respective institutions. The CEC will promote the dissemination of cHAB research to the general public and enhance scientific writing by engaging with media partners and journalism departments at select member institutions. CEC, working with the University of Toledo’s Environmental, Occupational, and Community Medicine Program, will (1) facilitate community and stakeholder involvement in clinical and translational research and (2) address disparities toward health equity by identifying the environmental, structural, and sociocultural factors that contribute to poor health outcomes for high-risk groups. Finally, the CEC will use existing community science outreach relationships with the Lake Erie Charter Captains Association and the U.S. Coast Guard to expose an impactful audience of the lessons learned and research gaps identified by the Center in the cHABs space. Ultimately, the CEC will be a conduit to convey Center research findings to inform behavior change and inform management and policy decisions.