Community Engagement and Health Equity

Community Engagement and Health Equity (CEHE) is critical to increase the reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation and maintenance of clinical and translational research. The Community Engagement and Health Equity core aims to give communities a voice in the research that is important to them.

The Community Engagement and Health Equity core through the Partnership of Academicians and Communities for Translation (PACT) aims to:

• Educate and connect investigators and communities
• Develop programs to improve relationships and build trust between academics and communities
• Build capacity in community-academic partnerships
• Provide funds for community engagement and research
• Facilitate Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR)

Our Mission

The Partnership of Academicians and Communities for Translation (PACT) transforms health research to balance power and responsibility between community, clinicians and researchers to improve the health of the people of Colorado and the Rocky Mountain Region.

Specific Aims

1. Convene strategic community-academic partnerships as a sustained enterprise for community-based translational research that encourages trust in the research enterprise and addresses health concerns of relevance to communities
2. Build the capacity of Colorado researchers, community organizations and practices to conduct mutually beneficial, community-engaged research
3. Infuse community engagement throughout the translational research spectrum, strengthening the bidirectional links between the academic medical center, healthcare providers, and community
4. Facilitate the translation and dissemination of scientific discoveries into practical, community-relevant language and interventions

Health Equity Statement

Health is a fundamental human right. Health equity requires removing obstacles so that every person has the opportunity to attain their full potential for health and well-being.

The Partnership of Academicians and Communities for Translation (PACT) is working towards health equity by partnering with community to design, implement, and fund research, education, training and programs that support health for all people, in particular efforts focused on improving health outcomes experienced by people who are marginalized, disadvantaged, or underserved.

Specifically, PACT is committed to:

• Research that equitably benefits communities
• Mutual learning between community and researchers
• Supporting a research infrastructure that fosters equitable, long term community engagement
• Community based decision making
• The ethical and responsible collection, interpretation, storage, management, and sharing of data
• Serving as thought partners and consultants for organizations that are exploring their own commitment to community engaged research and health equity
• We will continue to evaluate internal processes to sustain efforts and ensure our actions equitably benefit community

Core Competencies

1. Grow and build trusting relationships: A commitment to engage and sustain diverse relationships between community and university, aimed at building capacity, for the sake of changing how research gets done and to empower communities to create positive outcomes
2. Partnership Development: Supporting relationships between communities and academics to co-develop, co-implement, and co-disseminate translational research to remedy power imbalances and facilitate mutual benefit among all partners
3. Training, Coaching, and Mentoring: Identify and respond to community and academic needs related to training and coaching in Community Engagement and Community Based Participatory Research so people gain foundational skills, apply/use relevant practices, and have ongoing and responsive support throughout the research and engagement process. We are continuous learners, expanding our own capacity in existing and emerging areas of health research

Land Acknowledgement

We humbly acknowledge that University of Colorado – Anschutz Medical Campus is located on the traditional and contemporary homelands of Indigenous peoples. Our campus resides on unceded lands of the Arapaho people, established to the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1851. We recognize the enduring presence of more than 40,000 Indigenous peoples in the greater Denver area. The sprawling urban American Indian and Alaska Native presence in Denver consists of other tribes native to Colorado such as Apache, Comanche, Shoshone, and Ute community members yet is now home to numerous other Indigenous people from many of the 560 plus federally recognized tribes in this country.

Together, we acknowledge the history of genocide and ongoing systemic inequities while respecting treaties made on this territory as a step towards reconciliation and strengthening relationships with Indigenous peoples. We give thanks to the past, present and future stewards of this land and respect all tribal nations’ sovereignty and right to self-determination. We recognize the lessons, including many medical and public health lessons Indigenous communities have offered and continue to teach us.

Special Projects: Special projects are projects that are intermittent or associated with specific funding streams that are in addition to the core programs described in this document. The CEHE Core participates in a number of special projects each year.