Florida-California Cancer Health Equity Center (CaRE2) Community Scientist Research Advocacy Program

• Published in: Journal of cancer education 2023-10, Vol.38 (5), p.1429-1439
• Main Authors: Hensel, B., Askins, N., Ibarra, E., Aristizabal, C., Guzman, I., Barahona, R., Hazelton-Glenn, B., Lee, J., Zhang, Z., Odedina, F., Wilkie, D. J., Stern, M. C., Baezconde-Garbanati, L., Suther, S., Webb, F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Advocacy; African Americans; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Black or African American; California; Cancer; Cancer Research; Community; Community Relations; Educational Status; Florida; Health Equity; Hispanic Americans; Hispanic or Latino; Humans; Medical research; Neoplasms - prevention & control; Pharmacology/Toxicology; Program Evaluation; Scientists
• ISSN: 0885-8195; 1543-0154
• DOI: 10.1007/s13187-023-02351-3

The Community Scientist Program (CSP), a model connecting researchers with community members, is effective to inform and involve the general population in health-related clinical research. Given the existing cancer disparities among Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino/a populations, more models describing how cancer-related CSPs are designed, implemented, and evaluated are needed. The Florida-California Cancer Research, Education and Engagement (CaRE 2 ) Health Equity Center is a tri-institutional, bicoastal center created to eliminate cancer health disparities among Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino/a populations living in California and in Florida. The CaRE 2 Center created a Community Scientist Research Advocacy (CSRA) training program for community members to become cancer research advocates. The CSRA program is currently a 13-week program conducted 100% virtually with all materials provided in English and Spanish for participants to learn more about prostate, lung, and pancreas cancers, ongoing research at CaRE 2 , and ways to share cancer research throughout their communities. Participants attend didactic lectures on cancer research during weeks 1–5. In week 4, participants join CSRA self-selected groups based on cancer-related topics of interest. Each group presents their cancer-related advocacy project developed during weeks 5–12 at the final session. In this paper, we describe the CaRE 2 Health Equity Center’s CSRA program, share results, and discuss opportunities for improvement in future program evaluation as well as replication of this model in other communities.