CO-CEAL: Colorado Community Engagement Alliance Against Health Disparities

CO-CEAL

The Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities is a national network of community-engaged researchers, community-based organizations, government officials and public health experts working to reduce the burden of the disease on those who are hardest hit by it. Funding for CEAL comes from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Who We Are

The Community Clinical Trials Advisory Board (CCTAB) is composed of researchers, community members, and academicians.

Mission Statement

Through authentic, equitable, and informed engagement, we strive to create an experience between communities and researchers that increases the diversity of participants in clinical research with the ultimate goal of improving research relevance for all communities.

Vision

We envision a research community that is inclusive of diverse participants, staff, investigators and partners that reflect the needs and disparities of the State of Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region.

Objectives

• To advance health literacy related to community participation in clinical trials by providing education to community and cultural competence to researchers.
• To strengthen the protection of, respect for, and empowerment of participants in clinical trials
  
• To improve the relevance and quality of clinical research and its usefulness to communities
  
• To ensure that research questions reflect a major concern of community members as well as offering realistic solutions to these questions
  
• To enhance the relevance and application of research data by all participants
  
• To value the different skills, knowledge and experience of community members and researchers to address complex problems

Boot Camp Translation (BCT), or sometimes called “Community Translation,” leverages the expertise of community members to translate dense scientific evidence and guidelines into messages, campaigns and materials that are locally relevant. Groups create materials that call local community members to action to promote a specific topic, and in the case of CO-CEAL, specifically with COVID-19 vaccination.

Generally, BCT has evolved from its beginning as an effort to include the High Plains Research Network’s Community Advisory Council in a project to increase screening rates for colon cancer, into what is now a standardized, proven process that has been replicated within many communities and throughout many projects in Colorado and across the country.

The BCT process typically lasts between six and nine months, and includes a series of in-person and phone meetings. With the need to get relevant and accurate COVID-19 vaccine information out to communities across Colorado that are disproportionately affected by COVID-19, this CO-CEAL effort is using a “rapid” BCT (rBCT) model. The rBCT model will take place in five communities and will guide participants through the entire BCT process in an eight-week period, completely virtually. Groups will work with trained BCT facilitators, community connectors, medical experts and graphic designers to produce high quality materials that present the messages and information to the particular communities and are distributed in local venues.

Boot Camp Translation: A Method for Building a Community of Solution

Testing to Prevent Colon Cancer: How Rural Community Members Took on a Community-Based Intervention

Reinventing The Wheel Of Medical Evidence: How The Boot Camp Translation Process Is Making Gains

A Community Engagement Method to Design Patient Engagement Materials for Cardiovascular Health

 

The CCTAB is composed of researchers, community members, and academicians. Through authentic, equitable, and informed engagement, we strive to create an experience between communities and researchers that increases the diversity of participants in clinical research with the ultimate goal of improving research relevance for all communities. We envision a research community that is inclusive of diverse participants, staff, investigators and partners that reflect the needs and disparities of the State of Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region.

Objectives of the CCTAB

• To advance health literacy related to community participation in clinical trials by providing education to community and cultural competence to researchers.
• To strengthen the protection of, respect for, and empowerment of participants in clinical trials.
• To improve the relevance and quality of clinical research and its usefulness to communities.
• To ensure that research questions reflect a major concern of community members as well as offering realistic solutions to these questions.
• To enhance the relevance and application of research data by all participants.
• To value the different skills, knowledge and experience of community members and researchers to address complex problems

You and your fellow community members have the power to make a significant impact on medical research. By participating in a clinical trial, you can ensure that your community is included in the conversation and has a voice in designing future studies.

Clinical Trials at CU Anschutz

 

 

Additional Resources

• Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research: Novel Clinical Trials
• Community Engagement Pilot Grants