Project Summary: Community Engagement Core The goal of mitigating health disparities in Puerto Rico is a formidable task that cannot be achieved without community engagement initiatives. These are based on promoting sustainable community-academic partnerships that can improve researchers’ cultural competency, translate research findings to diverse stakeholders, and promote changes at the local level. To achieve CEC’s main goal, the following key activities will be conducted: (1) Establish and enhance sustainable community-academic partnerships involved in translational research in Puerto Rico, to address health related concerns and promote participation in the Center’s activities. The CEC will continue to foster relationships with local community and health organizations through collaborations such as coordination of educational activities, development of educational materials, need-assessment surveys and other community outreach activities that consider their specific needs. (2) Increase RCMI investigators’ cultural competency and strengthen community engagement approaches in research projects involving minority health and health disparities. The CEC will organize a series of activities such as an annual retreat, symposiums, seminars and workshops aimed at increasing investigators’ knowledge of community engagement strategies, along with having recurrent meetings with the CCRHD-supported investigators. Also, the Core will develop an infrastructure to implement the Community Engagement Studio, a strategy that allows researchers to obtain feedback from community experts. (3) Coordinate a Community Coalition Team (CCT) that will advise RCMI investigators on research areas of high interest to the community, strategies to improve the recruitment and retention of study participants, and methods to disseminate research findings to a variety of audiences. The CCT will support and collaborate with the CEC in the development and implementation of our strategic work plan. (4) Evaluate the activities and strategies implemented by the Community Engagement Core (CEC) and the extent to which the Core has achieved its goals each year. The CEC will use diverse methods to conduct evaluations such as surveys, attendance lists, testimonies (writings, videos), social-media statistics and a SWOT analysis. (5) Disseminate CEC and RCMI-wide activities and educational content to diverse stakeholders, and translate research findings into sustainable community changes at the local level. The Core will use existing CCRHD social-media accounts to create and share relevant content and also promote health literacy among communities through research translation.