Community Engagement

The Community Engagement Core will be delivered through a multi-organizational alliance known as the PORT: Strategic Community Engagement Alliance (PORT:SCEA). The PORT:SCEA is designed to accelerate the dissemination and implementation of research into practice (T2). This will be achieved through novel community engagement, acceleration, integration and action mechanisms, all designed to support and nurture innovative research, new researchers and new methods.

Why Community Engagement. Community engagement is an essential ingredient in the process of accelerating movement along the research-practice (translational, T2) continuum, creating the trust, collaborations, long-term commitment and innovative possibilities that render the interaction between university and the many different sectors of the community transparent, seamless and effective. This is especially critical with respect to addressing health disparities. Community engagement facilitates connections between the voices of community residents, organizations and service providers and policy makers who raise their concerns and propose solutions and involves them in the process of selecting, using, evaluating and creating evidence-based interventions to improve treatment and prevention practice.

Meeting Community Engagement Goals through the PORT.The Community Engagement Core aims will be met through a multi-organizational alliance known as the PORT: Strategic Community Engagement Alliance (PORT:SCEA). The PORT plays a central role in linking university and non-University organizations and individuals to further the interface of research and practice in the continuing innovation, identification and development of efficacious treatments, programs and methods across the disease/wellness spectrum, their evaluation dissemination to target audiences, adoption, implementation, critical assessment and institutionalization. The PORT:SCEA includes university based centers on the Storrs and UCHC campuses: TRIPP, CHIP, CPHHP, the Department of Community Medicine, three community based practice/research organizations -- the Community Health Center Association of Connecticut, the Institute for Community Research and the Hispanic Health Council, and four community health promotion experts representing diverse sectors of affected communities.

PORT integrative mechanisms include governance through the PORT Alliance, boundary spanners to link critical components of the health/prevention research and delivery system, a translational research laboratory, training support and guidance for researchers at all levels, and Core Interest Groups, all of which include financial support for university/community engagement.

The Community Engagement Core has three specific aims:

1. Increase the bidirectional engagement and involvement of community partners from ambulatory practice settings, hospital settings, community organizations, academia, community residents, and local, regional, and state public and private agencies in CICATS translational research strategic planning and implementation.
2. Stimulate and nurture T2 research across the region and in partnership with non-research end users (practitioners, state agencies, urban leaders, individuals and targeted groups with special health needs).
3. Contribute to the science of dissemination and implementation through improvements and innovation in theory and method.

Each of the eight PORT:SCEA organizations will contribute to the achievement of aims in a matrix design, depending on their organizational mission and strengths, as illustrated in Table 2: