Community Partnership and Engagement

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PROJECT SUMMARY The Community Partnerships and Engagement (CPE) component supports CIRCLE’s main themes of commitment to a multi-system, multi-disciplinary, and bi-directional approach to translational science between academia and Indigenous communities. The CIRCLE approach to community partnership and engagement recognizes the unique experiences and legal status of Oklahoma’s Indigenous communities and builds directly on our PCORI-funded engagement work through the Southern Plains Tribal Health Board. It also draws on the broader community engagement resources of the Oklahoma Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (OCTSI). The CPE component’s primary goal is to directly connect the careers of researchers at our institutions with the needs of Oklahoma’s Indigenous communities around the general theme of maternal health and health equity. CIRCLE remains committed to the principle that research is most effective when community partners are fully involved with all aspects of the work – from initially selecting and prioritizing questions (as in those proposed here), to conducting the research, to disseminating and implementing findings. Our approach to community engagement will enable CIRCLE to continue advancing its mission to build authentic Indigenous community and tribal capacity for maternal health research. The CPE component is responsible for achieving aim 1 of CIRCLE: Leverage existing partnerships with tribes and tribal health stakeholders on patient-centered outcomes research and interventions to improve maternal outcomes. The academic-community-tribal partnerships supported by this grant are designed to enable improved maternal health and health care for Indigenous communities statewide and to grow the science of community and tribal engagement nationwide. To achieve CIRCLE’s aim, the CPE component has three specific aims: 1) Strengthen and expand our research partnerships with tribal community partners and health systems to improve maternal health outcomes; 2) Grow effective capacity for community engagement for students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty, and staff; and 3) Identify opportunities to align institutional policies and practices with community priorities. The long-term sustainability of this effort will require durable structures for identifying and responding to the needs of tribal and community partners working toward Indigenous maternal health equity. By combining investments in bi-directional dialogues in maternal health, with specific support for protocol development for CIRCLE investigators, and institutionalizing that in the operations of our institutions, we see the current effort as an essential investment in a sustainable center of excellence in Indigenous maternal health in the Southern Plains.