NIH's Clinical Translational Science Awards (CTSAs) fund activities in 38 academic health centers in 23 states with plans to ultimately link approximately 60 institutions (www.ncrr.nih.gov). Imperative to the CTSA goal of moving medical discoveries to clinical practice more quickly, is the ability to engage communities to become partners in the research process. The mission of the CTSA Community Engagement Steering Committee (CESC) is to ensure the successful implementation of a broad community engagement plan among the current CTSA sites by sharing knowledge, expertise and resources that lead to effective engagement of communities in the translational research process via community outreach, dialogue, collaboration, and dissemination of translational research results (http://www.cdc.gov/phppo/pce/part2.htm). In the fall of 2008, a series of regional workshops, planned by the CTSA CESC's regional workshop workgroup, will afford the opportunity for CTSA sites and partners to exchange best practices in community engagement. At the conclusion of the series, the CESC will develop a monograph of recommended methods for building and enhancing community trust in research, especially with disadvantaged communities. However, long-term change will require more than just one monograph. Hence, to coincide with the launch of the monograph, the CESC proposes through this application for PA-06-041 to convene a second national meeting, "Improving Health WITH Communities: The Role of Community Engagement in Clinical and Translational Research". To continue the evolving discourse and documentation of best practices, the CESC, having launched an aggressive effort to establish best practices in community engagement within the CTSAs and partner organizations, and to share those with the CTSAs, our partners, and the community at large, proposes to convene an annual conference for the next 5 years. The proposed 2nd conference will address priority areas of two of the eight goals of the CTSA Consortium: #2 Develop a coordinated/federated approach to training, education and career development across the spectrum of translational and clinical disciplines;# 8 Develop an effective national model for community engagement. To meet these goals, the objectives over the next 5 years are to: 1: Develop standard methods for Community Engagement within the context of clinical and translational research. 2: Provide a forum for discussion of experiences and ideas concerning education and training of researchers and their teams in community-engagement principles and practices. 3: Provide a forum for discussion of experiences and ideas concerning education and support of community partners working with researchers at academic institutions. 4: Provide a networking opportunity across translational and clinical disciplines. 5: Identify national and regional resources to support effective community engaged research. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The NIH national conference "Improving Health WITH Communities: The Role of Community Engagement in Clinical and Translational Research," will continue the evolving discourse and documentation of best practices among CTSA awardees and community partners. This 2nd conference is being planned by the Community Engagement Steering Committee (CESC) to ensure the successful implementation of a broad community engagement plan among the current CTSA sites and to link institutions by sharing knowledge, expertise and resources. The goal of the CESC is to bring the CTSAs, their partners, and other national partners such as the CDC, HRSA and AHRQ together once a year for a conference that engages researchers and communities in the translational research process via community outreach, dialogue, collaboration, and the dissemination of translational research results.
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