Oral

Despite advances in medical care, disparities in health persist for certain populations. Elimination of these disparities requires intensive and sustained community based approaches, including the formation of an infrastructure that focuses on affected communities in the promotion of education, development of culturally relevant research, and formulation of health policies. In this session we will describe the robust and sustainable infrastructure to develop community participatory programs, research and advocacy created by the Maryland Regional Community Network Program. We will begin with a description of a model to foster community and academic involvement in the analysis of policies related to health disparities and the utilization of research findings to foster community health improvement and advocacy. Next, we will describe an evaluation design to track policy development activities in five domains: information dissemination; partnership building; policy assessment; policy alternatives; and program development. Preliminary findings will also be presented. Our next presenter will discuss an evaluation of the impact of our network model, which is intended to motivate organization board members to influence elected officials and state and federal legislators to formulate long-term approaches to mitigating cancer health disparities. Finally, we will describe the efforts of National Cancer Institute-funded South Carolina Cancer Disparities Community Network (SCCDCN) to lessen the burden of cancer in the African American community through collaborations with African American churches.

Session Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be able to: 1. Describe models utilized to leverage resources to address cancer and other chronic disease disparities among US citizens; 2. Illustrate effective communication/utilization of research findings and recomendations to policymakers; 3. Provide examples of public education on existing legislation as a means of advocacy.

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing