I. MISSION AND OVERVIEW A. The Mission of the Southwest Environmental Health Science Center (SWEHSC) COEC is to promote awareness, appreciation, and comprehension of environmental health issues associated with the goals and vision of the SWEHSC. COEC uses the expertise of the SWEHSC investigators to provide services to concerned professional and public stakeholders. In addition, COEC provides a channel for gathering information related to stakeholders concerns and responding to community requests for information. The goals changed over the last funding period in response to the change in the NIEHS P30 Core Centers RFA requirements for outreach cores. The goals for the current funding period are addressed in the Established Community Outreach And Education section. The goals for the coming funding period are addressed in the Future Directions section. B. Overview and Rationale: The COEC will continue to serve as a bi-directional resource of information and expertise for surrounding communities, stakeholders and the Center. The COEC strives to further scientific collaborations and to disseminate research results. The initiatives the COEC fosters are a direct reflection of the COEC's assessment of the Environmental Health (EH) Science information needs of the target audiences and of requests from partners. The COEC provides assistance to partners with their outreach activities and education endeavors for adults and children focused around the environmental health (EH) topics of the SWEHSC; arsenic contamination, UV exposure, asthma, toxicology, oxidative stress, EH research methods, trichloroethylene exposure and environmental impacts on diabetes. A community centric philosophy (Watkins, 2009) drives COEC activities, relationships and interactions among SWEHSC and Target Audiences of Tribal communities, residents in Superfund areas, and educational communities in southern Arizona. Community is at the heart of COEC Figure 1. The COEC conducts most of its initiatives in partnership with Tribal, Community, and University associates, depicted in the next ring of the diagram. The COEC supports the SWEHSC mission of community involvement by translating and disseminating the research findings of SWEHSC scientists. By interacting with the Integrated Health Science Facility Core (IHS) the COEC assesses the EH information needs of communities, provides education about working with communities to scientists and their students, and educates community members about EH research in collaboration with SWEHSC scientists. The COEC supports NIEHS annual meetings with sessions about interacting with Tribal communities and collaborates with the outreach cores of other centers to develop materials and methods for outreach activities and evaluation, the outside ring of the diagram.
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