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Community Organizations

Description

Katherine Mathews, MD, MPH, MBA, Associate Professor of Obstetrics/Gynecology, coordinates the Community Organizations program with the assistance of Emma Ilori, MPH, CHES. The program’s mission is to enhance long-term, collaborative research relationships with community-based partner organizations focused on healthcare delivery and health promotion. In all of its activities, the Community Organizations program works in collaboration with community representatives and develops initiatives that respond to community identified priorities.

Prior to the establishment of the ICTS and during its initial launch, the Community Organizations program and its partners assessed local attitudes about research and sought input from community representatives about ways to improve the relevance, conduct and impact of research. This information was gathered through formal focus groups, key informant interviews, community forums and ongoing dialogue and planning with community representatives.

Examples include the September 15, 2009 Regional Health Commission
PDFMeeting Notes

and the summary of the
PDFCommunity Activities Project.

In response to this feedback, the Community Organizations program has developed and/or supported a series of initiatives aimed at (1) creating formal structures and mechanisms for identifying community research priorities (2) facilitating and supporting equitable research partnerships (3) reporting back research findings to partner organizations, participants and the community at large and (4) developing education and awareness programs to enhance the public understanding of research in general and unique research opportunities.

Some of these projects include:

  • Our Community, Our Health led by Consuelo Wilkins, MD, of Washington University and Darcell Scharff PhD, of Saint Louis University. See Our Community, Our Health or email Dr. Wilkins at cwilkins@dom.wustl.edu for additional information.
  • The Reporting Back Initiative: This article appeared in the May/June issue of ICTS News. PDFReporting Back

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