PROJECT SUMMARY – Community Engagement Core The Community Engagement Core (CEC) will foster a culture of collaboration among environmental health scientists, community organizations, environmental justice experts and environmental health-related public agencies to create and sustain multi-directional partnerships for environmental health research that are responsive to the environmental health needs and concerns of the most vulnerable communities in California's Central Valley. This region, considered to have the most productive agricultural industry in the country, also leads the nation in areas of concentrated poverty, environmental contamination, and poor environmental health conditions. Building from a foundation of strong community partnerships developed in the last four years, the CEC’s activities for the next cycle will include: 1) building greater Community Stakeholder Advisory Committee (CSTAC) leadership into CEC and EHSCC activities; 2) expanding, modifying, and refining trainings from the last cycle in order to reach a wider audience and continue strengthening individual community-engaged research partnerships; 3) developing innovative and impactful communication strategies that increase environmental health literacy, empower communities to understand and use science, and drive the translation of EHSCC research into policy change and other health-protective action; and, 4) evaluating the efficacy of CEC programs for continuous improvement and contribution to the scholarship of community engagement. The CEC will interact with all programs and cores within the EHSCC, serving to connect EHSCC leadership and investigators to the interests and needs of disadvantaged communities in the Central Valley. Integration with the Pilot Project Program will focus upon developing community-responsive pilot projects, for which the CEC and CSTAC co-chairs will serve as proposal reviewers and the CEC will provide continuous support to pilot investigators throughout their projects. The CEC and Administrative Core will work together to plan and coordinate CEC/CSTAC directed events, produce and disseminate outreach materials, and coordinate engagement between the EHSCC and non-academic stakeholders. Integration with the Integrated Health Sciences Facility Core (IHSFC) and Exposure Core will be enhanced by new topic-specific working groups; CSTAC member participation on these working groups will create opportunities to identify potential community engagement and research-to-policy activities.