Community Engagement Core

Community Engagement Core

Infusing principles of Community-Partnered Participatory Research, the primary goals of the Rutgers-NYU Center for Asian Health Promotion and Equity Community Engagement Core (CEC) are to:

1) organize and nurture academic-community partnerships focusing on Asian Adults;

2) facilitate the recruitment and retention of diverse Asian adults into intervention research on cardiometabolic and mental health research;

3) and build a reciprocal and sustainable community-partnered infrastructure in order to bridge knowledge gaps and disseminate evidence-based best practices at community, state and national levels to inform practice and policy.  With 21 million Asians in the U.S. and as one of the fastest growing minority groups [26% increase from 20102019], we have very limited scientific knowledge about this population. At the same time, while overall, US Asians are the highest-income, best-educated minority group, more Asians live below the poverty line, are less likely to enroll in biomedical research, and are more likely than white Americans to experience disparities in many social and health outcomes than white Americans.

Previous studies suggest that there may be marked health disparities in the US Asian population, with high occurrence of adverse health conditions and risk factors that may place older adults at increased risk of psychosocial distress and cardiometabolic disease. Furthermore, there has been inadequate community partnership and support necessary to empower the Asian American community to be fully engaged in biomedical research. These impediments necessitate further development and implementation of sustainable and equitable partnership of both the Asian American community and researchers through collaborative research development and reciprocal transfer of knowledge and expertise to improve the health of the Asian population.  New Jersey and New York are the ideal setting for an Asian-focused center on health equity intervention research, as it has one of the most diverse and densely populated Asian Populations in the US.

We propose a multi-level strategy that optimizes recruitment, retention, and dissemination through the following specific aims: 

Aim 1: Leveraging Community-Partnered Participatory Research (CPPR) and communication theories to systematically prepare Rutgers-NYU CAHPE to engage and communicate effectively with each other, non- academic audiences, including the news media, policymakers, and other general audiences. 

Aim 2: Build a sustainable and collaborative community steering committee (CSC) connecting community and academic institutions for community-partnered, action-oriented health promotion research in Asian adult populations  

Aim 3: Expand community-partnered research capacity amongst faculty and Asian community members through culturally appropriate, community-tailored, reciprocal education and training in biomedical and behavioral research to fully understand the health needs and barriers, challenges, socio-cultural context of conducting research in and with Asian communities. 

Aim 4: Facilitate the recruitment and retention of Asian adults, through culturally and linguistically appropriate research literacy support tool.   

Aim 5: Translate the research findings of the pilot and center projects at community, state, regional and national levels to inform practice and policy in coordination with other CAHPE cores and with National NIH Centers and other Asian population research centers.