# Community Engagement and Outreach Core

> **NIH NIH U54** · UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO MED SCIENCES · 2022 · $402,896

## Abstract

Puerto Rico is experiencing profound health disparities in available health services and health outcomes. Many
of the reported disparities reflect lower availability and quality of health care in the island as compared to many
states in the US mainland. The stark disparities that emerge from studies of health and health disparities reflect
the relative invisibility of Puerto Rico in health care research, health policy discussion, and island -wide data
systems that inform US national data systems. Research programs that collaborate with the community to
achieve shared leadership can improve critical health behaviors, increase knowledge, improve practices, affect
social norms, lower disease incidence, and reduce poor health outcomes and mortality. The Community
Outreach and Engagement Core (CoEC) of the Hispanic Alliance for Translational and Clinical Research
(Alliance) aims to increase the multi-sectorial coordination necessary for the large-scale social change needed
to improve community health that affect Hispanic communities in Puerto Rico. The long-term goal of CoEC is to
catalyze and support meaningful Community Academic Partnerships (CAPs) to improve population health in PR.
Our main objectives are to establish the Core proposes to enhance and maintain community participation
through a new Community Health & Research Council, to help identify research priorities for health conditions
prevalent in Hispanic populations and assist in decisions-making for developing research initiatives addressing
community health. Community Health & Research Council will foster trust between communities and academia
to increase the participation of the community in Alliance research; and integrating diverse researchers and
community settings to identify key health conditions needing attention, and supporting those relationships with
mentoring, education, and dissemination. The CoEC will promote and enhance CAPs and employ a community
development approach in which citizens have a significant voice in determining the Alliance’s collaborative
agenda and resource allocation, while promoting co-learning and empowerment to attend to health and social
inequities. The core will build on community and academic strengths and resources to reinforce the relationship
with existing partners and expand to include new collaborators. Our goal and objective will be accomplished
through the following aims: 1) Enhance and maintain community participation in identifying research priorities for
health conditions prevalent in Hispanic populations; 2) Develop the capacity of Alliance investigators, core staff,
and community partners to address targeted health conditions through research, evidence-based, community
engagement, and mentoring; and 3) Improve dissemination of research designs and finding to stimulate adoption
of best practices for community engagement. The CoEC expects to ensure community participation in Alliance
decision-making to identify health priorities; to foster c...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10417256
- **Project number:** 5U54GM133807-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO MED SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** EDNA ACOSTA-PEREZ
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $402,896
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-09-02 → 2025-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10417256

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10417256, Community Engagement and Outreach Core (5U54GM133807-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10417256. Licensed CC0.

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