Community Engagement Facility Core

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COMMUNIITY ENGAGEMENT CORE (CEC): ABSTRACT The Community Engagement Core (CEC) supports the mission of the CEET by engaging stakeholders to identify environmental health problems and address them collaboratively. Translation of ongoing Center environmental health research to community stakeholders and communication of environmental health research needs from community stakeholders back to CEET investigators is facilitated by the CEC’s strong collaborations with its community stakeholders comprised of three major audiences: (a) target communities; (b) health care professionals; and (c) policy and decision makers. Through our “Target Community Model” we first learn about the spectrum of community problems and then address environmental health problems without imposing any external agenda. Our regional focus is on the aging infrastructure of post-industrialized cities e.g. Philadelphia and its surrounding rural communities in Pennsylvania. In our target communities we focus on identifying vulnerable populations including children, the elderly and the disadvantaged to enable Precision Public Health (PPH) approaches. The CEC actively facilitates Community Engaged Research (CER) and Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR). The CEC’s Stakeholder Advisory Board composed of CEET members and community stakeholders prioritize research questions with a focus on our CEET’s thematic areas in which we have considerable expertise, Air Pollution & Lung Health, Environmental Exposures & Cancer, Windows-of- Susceptibility and Environmental Neuroscience. Research questions are often taken to the Integrative Health Sciences Facility Core for input on study design. Our Target Communities Model allows for comprehensive engagement to enhance the communication of environmental health information to improve public health. We seek out and engage policy and decision makers by providing them with science to support improved public health policy. As a result, we have promoted legislative changes in Philadelphia and Lancaster that will protect children from lead exposure. We actively translate and disseminate research information through publication and presentation to ensure that scientists, medical and health care professionals have the most current research information. We have presented research information to local and national audiences. Our CEC leverages multi- directional engagement regularly to expand the impact of our grant funding and promote active collaboration for improved health outcomes. Through collaborations with other CEC’s, we have designed innovative community engagement tools and worked on projects with national scope and impact.