Partnering to reach communities with Iowa’s largest cancer disparities

摘要

Abstract The Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center (HCCC) and the Iowa Cancer Consortium (ICC) have a highly collaborative relationship and actively engage communities to address cancer outcomes in Iowa. Nevertheless, there continues to be a need to enhance efforts focused on the communities with the most significant cancer disparities. Data from the Iowa Cancer Registry indicate that cancer disparities in Iowa are greatest between the Black/African American population and Whites and Iowa has the second highest cancer mortality among the Black population of all 50 states. As a long-standing successful state-wide coalition, ICC has extensive expertise in facilitation and relationship building. ICC also has connections with partners across the state in Black/African American communities. ICC does not have the resources or expertise to help these partners identify community needs or implement interventions to address the needs. The HCCC COE team can address these gaps by providing expertise in data collection, analysis, and interpretation of community needs assessments, including access to the Iowa Cancer Registry data. HCCC COE also has extensive experience in community-engaged research to address community cancer needs. HCCC COE has successfully identified appropriate evidence-based interventions to align with community needs, adapted these interventions to fit the community, and conducted process and outcome evaluations in collaboration with community partners. The combined expertise and experience of HCCC COE and ICC will be used to accomplish the following aims: 1) to strengthen the relationship between HCCC and ICC by testing a process to engage Black/African American communities in Iowa in identifying cancer related community needs and 2) to address cancer related community needs in Black/African American communities in Iowa by matching evidence- based interventions with community-identified needs, then adapting, implementing, and evaluating these interventions. The outcome of achieving these aims will be 1) a stronger, more productive relationship between HCCC and ICC, 2) improved connections between HCCC and the Black/African American communities, 3) a proven-effective process for engaging Black/African American communities in Iowa, 4) the implementation of evidence-based interventions to address significant cancer disparities in Iowa, and 5) the sustained engagement with the Black/African American community through ICC.