- OUTREACH, RECRUITMENT AND ENGAGEMENT CORE The Outreach, Recruitment, and Engagement (ORE) Core serves an essential role in the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) by: (1) facilitating recruitment and retention of diverse participants into the clinical, neuroimaging, biomarker, and neuropathology studies of center, (2) developing and evaluating innovative support programs for persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD) & AD-related disorders (ADRD) and their loved ones, and (3) advancing efforts to raise awareness and prepare communities to better manage and support residents with AD & ADRD and their families through community-based solutions. Operating at two geographically distinct sites in a coordinated fashion, ORE Core efforts meet center goals through targeted, site- specific activities in Jacksonville, FL (MCF) and Rochester, MN (MCR). Overall center recruitment is managed through the clinical practices of Clinical Core investigators, allowing ORE Core to focus recruitment efforts specifically on African Americans in the local Jacksonville community. These efforts are supported through activities and events developed and delivered in partnership with the Mayo Clinic ADRC African American Community Outreach & Advisory Board, the executive board and Vision Keepers of Jacksonville's New Town Success Zone, the City of Jacksonville's Dementia Care & Cure Initiative, the Central & North Florida chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, and local caregiver support agencies. We will foster retention of African American participants through a new collaborative effort with Clinical Core to provide advanced care planning services for these participants. To foster retention and inform best practices in patient and caregiver education, MCR ORE Core will continue to develop and refine innovative care programs in which participants will play a central role in identifying goals and evaluating outcomes. These efforts will focus primarily on persons with Lewy Body Disorders and Frontotemporal Dementia to reflect our center theme of Similarities and Differences Among Neurodegenerative Diseases. Retention events such as annual participant appreciation luncheons will continue at both sites. To increase community awareness and address threats to the well-being of persons with AD & ADRD, we will continue to foster the development of community-based solutions through the Dementia Friendly Community (DFC) framework of our outreach and engagement efforts. We will evaluate the impact of these programs on social constructs that negatively impact disease progression and quality of life, and we will continue efforts to implement and evaluate the impact of the DFC model in an African American community.
