HERCULES: Exposome Research Center

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HERCULES: COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT CORE -- SUMMARY The HERCULES Community Engagement Core (CEC) plays a critical role in the Center mission of learning how the exposome affects health and community well-being and using that knowledge to improve human health by sustaining and enriching relationships with community partners, further defining and applying the exposome concept to address community concerns. The CEC works with communities in the Atlanta metro area, a diverse region facing myriad environmental injustices. Due to this complex regional exposome, Atlanta’s environmental health (EH) community has coalesced around HERCULES and the exposome theme, forming an active and engaged Stakeholder Advisory Board (SAB) representing both those who are impacted and those who provide resources and oversight, including neighborhoods, non-profits, universities, and government agencies. Our SAB oversees, guides, and develops CEC activities and budgets. Together, we have had great success in achieving our previous goals of disseminating research findings, developing models of engagement that enhance community capacity to address local EH concerns, and strengthening capacity for community-engaged research among both community partners and EH scientists, leading to real impact, including a Superfund Remediation and changes to a city’s zoning ordinances. Building on those achievements, we used an iterative process of engaging, building trust with, and learning from our SAB, community, and Center members, to develop our current Aims and activities. The CEC will facilitate multi- directional dialogue and collaboration around EH and justice issues within the Atlanta community (Aim 1), guide and support HERCULES members and students in community engagement and collaborative efforts that are mutually beneficial, culturally responsible, & share power (Aim 2), and enhance community capacity to address local EH concerns and partner in collaborative shared-power efforts (Aim 3). We will continue to achieve multi-directional dialogue and collaboration by engaging our SAB to guide and inform our activities, which include a partnership with the HERCULES Pilot Project Program to guide and support Center members and students in community-engaged pilot projects as well as proposing CEC-led Translational Pilot Projects that further advance HERCULES research across the Translational Research Framework. We will offer two model community engagement programs that establish multi-directional dialogue, facilitate engagement and collaboration, and enhance community capacity: 1) the four-phase Exposome Roadshow and Community Grant Program supports a community to organize, plan, take, and sustain action around a priority EH issue, and 2) our Data Science Workshops, a partnership with Emory’s Environmental Law Clinic and the Environmental Health Data Sciences Core and Integrated Health Science Facility Core, addresses community data needs, training residents to identify, collect, and use data to address local EH concerns.