The main goal of the Community Engagement Core is to facilitate meaningful interactions between the community and academic researchers to better understand and find solutions to the root causes of urban health disparities which have not been fully addressed by traditional approaches to public health and social sciences research, mainly due to limited engagement of underserved communities in research. Being defined as a collaborative approach to research, Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) aims at increasing participation of underrepresented communities in research, enhancing the relevance and quality of the studies, and improving the dissemination of findings and the impact. The Community Engagement Core will serve as the infrastructure for recruiting and empowering community partners interested in finding solutions to urban health disparities through CBPR. The Core will be branded as Community-Aligned Research Enterprise (CARE) which will be housed in a Morgan State University?s extension building within the Morgan Community Mile. Through CARE, community partners meet peers, get access to a physical place with shared equipment and resources, and benefit from numerous opportunities for CBPR projects. The Core will be a learning community where both academicians and community stakeholders learn from one another and form a think tank for the overall leadership of the health disparities reduction movement spearheaded by many public and non-profit agencies. The overall leadership and direction of CARE will be overseen by a Community Steering Committee comprised of members representing various local organizations. CARE will serve as a clearinghouse for faculty and student training in community-oriented and community- engaged research and provide opportunities to practice such competencies in the real-life context of the community. Common activities include mobilizing and recruiting grassroots members and professionals, establishing organizational structures, capacity building, planning for action, evaluating outcomes, and institutionalizing strategies. Throughout these processes, community and academic partners will work in an equal partnership to design relevant community-engaged research resulting in effective and culturally appropriate products and services. CARE will work synergistically with faculty members involved with the Research Infrastructure Core and the Investigator Development Core to facilitate partnerships. CARE also has the potential to be a base for generating new high impact entrepreneurial initiatives and improving the local economy of underserved communities.
