The vision of the Community Engagement and Outreach (CEO) Core is to develop and sustain crucial community- academic research partnerships that enhance population health by addressing critical gaps in health care, resources, and understanding the diverse needs of Kentucky residents. Despite existing community outreach, engagement, and research efforts, KY lags significantly in all national health metrics, especially among diverse and under-resourced residents. A critical need for multi-directional efforts exists to promote awareness of and sensitivity to local health issues while ensuring community-participatory interventions and research addresses the needs of a diverse, underserved, and under- resourced community. The overarching goals of this core are to improve the overall health and well-being of Kentuckians by raising awareness of community health research needs and improving access to relevant research studies and data, while addressing the needs of at-risk subgroups, including health education, health literacy, and trust. To accomplish these goals, the proposed project will build community trust and health literacy through health intervention and research partnerships, using community-to-bedside prevention modalities, innovative community-participatory research, healthcare partners, and medical advances. Our multifaceted approach includes multi-directional information sharing in many formats, including Community Knowledge Exchange Sessions (CKES), Stakeholder Advisory Boards (SAB), collaborative activities with other Louisville Clinical and Translational Research Center (LCTRC) Cores, and discussions among citizen scientists, clinical investigators, health clinics, partners, research coordinators, and physician/community liaisons. We will work to integrate cultural respect and sensitivity throughout the design, implementation, and dissemination of community- participatory research. These activities will provide a base for strategic partnerships and study participants for clinical and translational (C&T) research geared toward mitigating health disparities. We will leverage our team’s breadth and depth of experience in community outreach and engagement and C&T research to address the following Aims: Specific Aim 1: Promote understanding of community health/research needs and disseminate knowledge, health research education, and share C&T research and resources with target communities. Specific Aim 2: Develop and support community-led and clinical investigator-initiated community-based participatory research. Impact: The CEO Core, in concert with stakeholders, will invest in both community-led and community- participatory C&T research to prevent, manage, and treat chronic diseases using multi-directional inputs that are sensitive to the culture and needs of our underserved target audience.