Community Outreach and Engagement

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ABSTRACT-COMMUNITY OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT A core mission of the Lurie Cancer Center (LCC) is to reduce the burden of cancer across all populations, with special focus and emphasis on the immediate catchment area. The LCC defines its catchment area (LCC-CA) as the nine (9) counties located in northeastern Illinois (IL) that constitute the metropolitan Chicago area. This is a dense area of 8.6 million people, accounting for more than two-thirds of the Illinois population, and where ~90% of the LCC patient population hails from. The LCC works closely with state agencies, communities and local partners to define health challenges and barriers to cancer care, address cancer disparities that are among the highest in the nation and emphasize basic, population, clinical and translational research for cancers that exhibit higher incidence and/or mortality in the LCC-CA. The LCC employs a community-focused approach to engagement and outreach activities with key stakeholders across the catchment area and catalyzes and supports a broad portfolio of research that is driven by key needs and issues specific to our catchment area’s cancer burden. This research drives scientific discoveries across the translational research spectrum from basic science to clinical trials, up to implementation and community-engaged science, aiming to minimize cancer incidence, mortality and disparities. In parallel, the LCC engages local, state and national policy makers in advocacy and policy development, modification and implementation. This comprehensive LCC-CA approach directly addresses the cancer health inequities that have existed in populations in our catchment area for decades and has resulted in significant strides over the years, and especially within the current funding period. Going forward, the LCC will continue to seek to champion the voices of underserved communities, provide tailored cancer education and outreach, increase access to cancer care that is consistently high quality, and develop hypotheses and research approaches that target populations facing the highest cancer burden in our catchment.