Community Outreach Program

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The goal of the proposed community Outreach Program (OP) is to increase the use of evidence-based biomedical and behavioral procedures and interventions to reduce the cancer burden among Hispanics in Texas. We will build on existing community partnerships, infrastructure and programs to develop an Outreach Program that will accomplish this goal through capacity building with community partners and direct health promotion in Hispanic communities. This proposal describes how we will conduct community-based participatory research, training, and health promotion and education that will reduce the cancer burden in Texas. Based on extensive community participation and prioritization through existing CBPR efforts, we have identified a number of areas of primary concern among Latino communities in Texas. These include: increasing vaccination against HPV, increasing breast and cervical cancer screening among rarely and never screened women, increasing colorectal cancer screening, increasing tobacco cessation, and increasing physical activity and nutrition. Additionally, based on our experience with Hispanic cohorts in Houston, El Paso, and Brownsville, and our preliminary studies conducted on the Texas Mexico border, we have noted other important areas of need including a better understanding of factors influencing participation in clinical trials and biobanking and the need for culturally competent and linguistically appropriate educational materials to address these issues. Collectively, the proposed CNP will focus on all of these areas; the Outreach core will begin with an initial focus on cancer screening (breast, cervical, and colorectal), and HPV vaccination. Additionally, the Pilot research project and the Outreach Core will jointly conduct needs assessment and intervention development and implementation activities related to participation in clinical trials and biobanking. The CNP Community OP will be named: TODOS Against Cancer/ TODOS Contra el Cancer (\n Spanish). TODOS stands for Texas Organizations Delivering Outreach Services Against Cancer. The proposed team and community partners chose this name because it conveys the conviction that "all of us" working together, can address cancer health disparities in Texas. Through our existing networks, we have demonstrated that inclusive, coordinated, community-centered collaboration can result in increased use of cancer prevention practices among the underserved to ultimately reduce the burden of cancer among Hispanics communities and other medically underserved groups.