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Community-Based Recruitment and Retention

Description

Linda B. Cottler, PhD, MPH, Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Psychiatry, is Director of both the Center for Community-Based Research (CCBR) and the Community-Based Recruitment and Retention (CBRR) program. The barriers to research participation that have been described by residents and communnity organizations include the perception that academic researchers often define research goals in isolation without considering the needs and desires of community organizations or community members.

To overcome these barriers and begin transformative outreach, this program has established HealthStreet, a project that links populations that have been underrepresented in research to health information, physician referrals and clinical trials. HealthStreet utilizes a comprehensive outreach approach to reestablish trust between the lay and medical communities and includes both a store front facility and an outreach component that reaches people in sites such as beauty shops, laundromats, bus stops and community agencies. Through these channels we reach individuals with limited access to health care from the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in St. Louis.

Services Available to ICTS Members

CCBR services include:

• Recruitment of targeted participant population for specific projects
• General recruitment of underrepresented populations through Community Health Workers