Community Liaison

University Of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Though increasing the recruitment of minorities into research studies is a critical need. If research findings are to be translated into practice, so that health disparities are reduced and ultimately eliminated, there is an even more pressing need to engage stakeholders in the design, conduct, and dissemination of research. Such stakeholder involvement is necessary to develop a better understanding of the myriad factors that contribute to disease prevalence, to understand the context of proposed independent and dependent variables, and to translate this information into sustainable prevention, treatment, and control strategies that are culturally appropriate. Thus, this core places recruitment efforts into a larger framework of involving minorities as vital components of the research process. This core is designed to contribute methodological expertise in approaches to engaging community stakeholders in research, inclusive of but not limited to community based participatory research. It will involve broad community representation of African American and Latino elders from the faith based (church and Islamic), community-based organizations, public officials, community residents, and academicians. It will provide a community and social perspective to investigators on matters of research design, data collection methods, data instruments, and dissemination of results. In this manner, the core will contribute to the understanding of methods of capacity building of community organizations, recruitment and retention of research participants, and dissemination of information. The core will achieve these objectives by addressing the following specific aims: H develop, implement, and evaluate structures and mechanisms for engaging community stakeholders in minority aging research conducted through the Penn RCMAR;_2:develop and evaluate strategies for obtaining a community, culturally appropriate perspective on research projects conducted under the auspices of the RCMAR and for disseminating information on the results of minority aging research to community stakeholders.;_3: develop and evaluate methods for recruiting elderly minorities to research conducted through the Penn RCMAR. The community partnerships are built upon longstanding relationships with two community advisory boards: the West Philadelphia Consortium on Health Disparities and the Philadelphia Area Research Community Coalition.