Community Engagement Core

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PROJECT SUMMARY: COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT CORE (CEC) The Drexel Climate Change and Urban Health Research Center (Drexel CCUH) seeks to build institutional capacity at Drexel University and at our partner sites to support action-oriented research on the impacts of climate change on population health and health inequities in cities across the Americas. The Center seeks to design and implement research and evidence translation to support the urban policies needed to address the health and equity impacts of climate change in cities. The guiding principle of the Drexel CCUH Community Engagement Core (CEC) is that local communities, organizations, and policymakers in urban areas worldwide play a key role in protecting and promoting health, health equity, and sustainability in the context of climate change. Within the context of ever-increasing data volume, these actors need access to specific, actionable evidence and the capacity to apply this evidence to urban adaptation and mitigation planning. The Drexel CCUH-CEC will lay the foundation for engagement across a network of community and policy actors who will inform timely and relevant research, engagement, and dissemination strategies that effectively respond to local needs. The Drexel CCUH-CEC will leverage existing strengths at Drexel University and partner institutions in urban health, health equity, policy-translation and community-engaged research, including an extensive research network in Latin America and US cities, and external institutional partnerships. The CEC will be led by Dr. Mariana Lazo (Drexel University) and supported by co-lead Dr. Monica Mazariegos (Institute for Nutrition in Central America and Panama [INCAP] in Guatemala), as well as additional faculty and policy- and community-engagement specialists. The CEC will work closely with the other center cores and research project leadership, and with the Community and Policy Advisory Board. The Core-specific aims include: Aim 1: To ensure our research and engagement activities are guided by local needs and priorities, Aim 2: To create opportunities for transdisciplinary and multi-sector exchange and capacity building Aim 3: To develop, implement, and define dissemination strategies and best practices for reaching various audiences, driving advocacy, and supporting policymaking. Aim 4: To evaluate the impact of our activities on agenda-setting, and outline plans for future engagement. Our multi-country team has an established track record of projects, partnerships, and engagement activities that will enable us to scale-up these efforts quickly and achieve our objectives within the three-year timeline. Importantly the CEC will support foundational work needed to ensure that meaningful community and policy engagement are core and integral elements to the future development of the Drexel CCUH in ways that support solutions-oriented evidence generation and actions.