COMMUNITY LIAISON CORE

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The mission of the CADC Community Liaison Core (CLC) is to continue to expand the roles of older minority adults in research targeting health disparities in these populations. CLC improves the capacity to conduct minority aging research by providing the necessary infrastructure, expertise, continued testing refinement of recruitment methods, and dissemination of community-based research methods and knowledge. Collaborating with key community representatives in all phases of a research project is an effective means of enhancing minority recruitment and retention, and conducting research that is more responsive to community needs, more inclusive of community perspectives and may reduce health disparities. Sustainability of academic-community partnerships and the infrastructure needed to support community involvement in research continue to be important issues. During the past nine years, the CLC has established and maintained a community- and faith-based infrastructure that is responsive to the health needs of older minority adults. The CLC serves as a command center for research activities designed to enhance the participation of older minority adults in research, primarily by providing technical expertise on the science of recruitment and community capacity building for research to CADC Scholars and other UCSF researchers seeking to increase minority enrollment in their studies. Over the next 5 years the CLC will work to: 1) provide CADC Scholars with methodological expertise and training in the science of recruitment and community capacity building to enhance ethnic community participation in research; 2) maintain a collaborative infrastructure with community and faith-based organizations to continue to provide entree and negotiate access to older minority adults for participation in research; and 3) disseminate information on state-of-the art recruitment and retention methods, community capacity building for research activities, and results-of health disparities research pertaining to older minority adults. In 2008, the CLC will host a community symposium to disseminate research findings that affect older minority adults from these communities. The CLC will continue to provide critical technical and training support to researchers, health practitioners, and community members to promote community participation in research that is mutually respectful and beneficial, and seeks to eliminate health disparities among diverse older adults.