The University of Cincinnati Center for Environmental Genetics (CEG) is applying for supplemental funds to re-establish a Community Outreach and Education Core (COEC) that will link CEG scientists to local communities through effective outreach and education activities. The investigators intend to revise P30 ES006096 to incorporate a COEC that will establish bidirectional communication between CEG investigators and target audiences, including community members and key opinion leaders, health care professionals, and public health policy makers. The mission of the proposed COEC is to effectively translate environmental health science research findings into practical health promotion, disease prevention information, tools and resources for the target audiences. The investigators are particularly interested in translating environmental health information that concerns susceptible populations, including minority and underserved com munities that are disproportionately affected by environmental contaminants and exposures. The COEC will develop and evaluate effective communication strategies that will reach target audiences through a variety of mechanisms, including online learning, puppet shows, websites, workshops, and targeted education for physicians using innovative outreach and education mechanisms. The outreach and education materials and information developed will be distributed for national implementation. The new COEC will formalize bi-directional community networks and collaborations and provide tools and resources for communicating science to specific audiences. The new COEC will: 1). Work with community stakeholders and opinion leaders to identify local environmental health problems that require research; 2). Work with CEG researchers to ensure that the research is conducted in a sound, ethical manner that will provide meaningful results to the community; 3). Ensure direct community benefit from research through public health policy and communication; 4). Determine the appropriate mechanisms to translate research findings to target audiences.
Environmental health sciences research needs to be translated to the communities that we serve, in a systematic and target-audience appropriate fashion. Extension of the current NIEHS CEG to include a Community Outreach and Education Core will provide this translation in response to community needs, and, in tum, communicate the community research needs to CE G scientists.
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