# The Virginia Advancing Cancer Control Equity Research Through Transformative Solutions (VA-ACCERT) Center

> **NIH NIH U19** · VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $358,672

## Abstract

COMMUNITY RESPONSIVE RESEARCH PROJECTS: PROJECT SUMMARY
The Virginia Advancing Cancer Control Equity Research Through Transformative Solutions (VA-ACCERT)
Center will support four Community Responsive Research Projects across the five-year project period aligned
with the goal of improving dissemination and implementation of multi-level cancer health promotion and
prevention services to individuals and families living within Virginia’s Department of Housing and Urban
Development-administered income-based housing – communities vastly comprised of racial/ethnic minority
populations with extremely low socioeconomic status yielding unjust health outcomes. Each project will be led
by an academic-community Co-Lead team and will promote iterative, rapid-cycle research that is responsive to
the needs of the Center’s partnering income-based housing communities. In addition, these projects will fuel the
Center’s efforts to promote the development of early-career investigators focused on cancer equity and
community-engaged research. Each academic Co-Lead for the four projects will need to meet the NIH definition
of an early-stage investigator and include a senior Center-associated mentor; priority will also be given to projects
incorporating pre- and postdoctoral trainees. Projects 1 and 2 will be three-year projects beginning in Year 1,
and Projects 3 and 4 will be two-year projects beginning in Year 4. Per the Notice of Funding Opportunity, only
Project 1 has been fully developed and described in this application. Projects 2-4 will be selected through an
academic-community-led, peer-review process and will receive design, implementation, evaluation, and
dissemination support from the Research Methods, Measures, and Data Management Core.
Project 1 Summary: Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the
United States. Social drivers of health are often associated with screening uptake. Marginalized groups, such as
public housing residents, are less likely to seek and obtain CRC screening. Project 1 aims to develop a multi-
level and peer-led Colon Health Champion intervention, leveraging interpersonal communication and community
cohesion, to improve CRC screening awareness and uptake within public housing communities. Utilizing an
ORBIT model for behavioral treatment development, Aim 1 will use qualitative methods to collect formative data
to identify critical intervention components via key informant interviews and focus groups with CRC screening
age-eligible adults living in public housing communities. The Project 1 team will iterate and modify intervention
components based on focus group feedback and then identify and train Colon Health Champions to deliver the
intervention. In Aim 2, a randomized controlled trial including 150 public housing residents will determine the
feasibility and preliminary efficacy of the Colon Health Champion intervention, including the impact on screening
completion. Collectively, the pr...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10929743
- **Project number:** 1U19CA291433-01
- **Recipient organization:** VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Brynn Sheehan
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $358,672
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-08-01 → 2029-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10929743

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10929743, The Virginia Advancing Cancer Control Equity Research Through Transformative Solutions (VA-ACCERT) Center (1U19CA291433-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10929743. Licensed CC0.

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