Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) Activities Across the Translational Research Continuum

Overview

Community outreach and engagement (COE) has been a fundamental activity of National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Cancer Centers since the initiation of the Cancer Centers program in 1971. Historically, COE has been commonly considered an extension of Centers’ Population Science/Cancer Prevention and Control Research Programs. However, since the 2016 and 2019 reissuances of the P30 Cancer Centers Support Grant (CCSG) guidelines, COE is expected to now span all aspects of Centers’ programs, including basic, clinical, translational, and population research. Cancer Centers – working with community stakeholders – should identify community needs, communicate those needs across the Center’s leadership and research programs (i.e., “in-reach”), and catalyze activities of special relevance to the Cancer Center’s self-defined geographic catchment area population. Cancer Centers are encouraged to generate examples of research projects where outreach to and engagement of communities informed and resulted in high-impact science. In addition, Centers are expected to work with communities to disseminate and implement evidence-based interventions (EBIs) and guidelines, public education, and public health policy recommendations. This bidirectional relationship between communities and Cancer Centers promotes an understanding of cancer that is more holistic (bench-to-bedside-to-community), transdisciplinary, encompassing of different views and experiences, culturally sensitive, and reflective of mutual goals.