The UW SRP has a long history of working with community groups and coalitions, government agencies, Tribal Nations, health professionals, and individual stakeholders to address environmental problems of concern. The CEC has developed bidirectional relationships with several of these organizations and agencies to address their priorities and provide needed assistance to help them succeed. During the next 5 years, we will build on the strengths of our program as well as expand our activities and partnerships. The CEC will work with community groups and agencies involved in the cleanup of the Lower Duwamish Waterway (LDW) to develop effective strategies to address subsistence fishing in the river as the cleanup proceeds through the remediation process, with the goal of protecting the health of the public by reducing exposure to known contaminants in the fish. We will also work with investigators from Project 4 and community groups and agencies involved in the cleanup of the Asarco Superfund site, which includes several communities in southern King County, as well as state and local agencies. The CEC has a longstanding relationship with the Northwest Toxic Communities Coalition (NWTCC) and will continue to partner with the coalition on their stated priorities, including providing support for annual summits, workshops and webinars. The CEC and the Training Core will work together to identify engagement opportunities for our trainees. Trainees will be involved in a community engagement project chosen from our many activities with the NWTCC and our partnerships with individual community organizations. The common thread across all of our activities with the NWTCC, individual community organizations, and Federal, State and Local agencies is to help these organizations build capacity in areas critical to their success.
The Community Engagement Core (CEC) is a key integrating element in the University of Washington Superfund Research Program. The core has the major responsibility of assisting UW SRP investigators and other research and core staff in building bi-directional relationships with community organizations and agencies involved in hazardous waste site contamination and cleanup. The primary role of the CEC within the UW SRP is to work with community stakeholders and federal, state and local agencies to develop intervention strategies to reduce community exposures to hazardous substances in order to improve public health.
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