Abstract B107: Community scientist research advocacy program: Training our research community

Abstract Community Scientist Research Advocacy (CSRA) training programs serve as fundamental bridges between communities and researchers. By engaging community members, these programs leverage networks, knowledge, and community perspectives to enhance research endeavors. This approach facilitates trust-building between disadvantaged populations and cancer researchers, particularly in the context of clinical trials participation and tissue donation. The purpose of our program was to develop and evaluate an innovative, bi-coastal, and bilingual program to inform, educate and encourage community members to become cancer research advocates in Florida (FL) and California (CA). Our program was culturally tailored for Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino/a adults. Primary objectives were to increase manpower for cancer research advocacy and increase multi-directional communication between cancer advocates with cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, community members, academic scientists, and policy makers. The CSRA program is a 13-week hybrid program implemented by the CaRE2 Health Equity Center, a bi-coastal partnership between the Florida A program satisfaction and evaluation were rated as high. In summary, our study depicts the effectiveness of a unique CSRA program tailored for Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino/a adults, fostering robust communication channels between cancer research advocates and diverse stakeholders. We emphasize the potential of such initiatives in addressing cancer health disparities and advocating to address specific inequalities by imparting educational initiatives in cancer research advocacy. We look forward to evaluating and enhancing our training program with an additional 21 research advocates in our cohort of 2024. Citation Format: Brooke Hensel, Ileana Guzman, Carolina Aristizabal, Eduardo Ibarra, Rosa Barahona, Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, Mariana C. Stern, Sandra Suther, Fern J. Webb. Community scientist research advocacy program: Training our research community abstract. In: Proceedings of the 17th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2024 Sep 21-24; Los Angeles, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2024;33(9 Suppl):Abstract nr B107.