Abstract A29: Community and academic partnership to prevent breast cancer: Experience from the Community Outreach and Preventive Services Core of a P20 Center

Abstract

Abstract Background: The Florida A&M University Center of Excellence for Cancer Research, Training and Community Service has developed a historical partnership with Leon and Gadsden, an urban and a rural County respectively, to eliminate cancer disparities through the Community Outreach and Preventive Services (COPS) Core. This partnership also aims at developing, implementing and evaluating theory-driven, culturally sensitive outreach intervention to increase breast cancer screening among underserved population. Methods: The partnerships accomplish these goals by creating community-university coalition building through CBPR, social marketing campaign, disease prevention, training, and education. Key elements in this partnership are trust, reciprocity, power-sharing in decision making, open communication, and conflict resolution. Five strategies namely ‘Know Thyself’, ‘All the King's Men’, ‘Bonfire of Vanities’, ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ and ‘The Beautiful and the Damned’ (©Rahman) were used in the CBPR process. An evaluation plan and feedback mechanism was established based on Tuchman's model on stages in decision making such as forming, storming, norming and performing to identify strengths and weaknesses and to adopt specific strategies for improvement. Results: Two local universities, seven community-based organizations, local health departments, the regional hospital, local chapters of national organizations and media channels are included in this partnership. Fifteen meetings as well as five community events were held and a total of 65 women were recruited for screening mammograms in the past seven months. Conclusion: Preliminary evaluation indicates trustworthy partnership among stakeholders, successful initial recruitment and social marketing campaign. However, strategic improvements are needed for sustainable partnership to reduce cancer disparities. Citation Format: Saleh M.M. Rahman, Cynthia M. Harris, Miaisha Mitchell, Karam F.A Soliman. Community and academic partnership to prevent breast cancer: Experience from the Community Outreach and Preventive Services Core of a P20 Center. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Sixth AACR Conference: The Science of Cancer Health Disparities; Dec 6–9, 2013; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2014;23(11 Suppl):Abstract nr A29. doi:10.1158/1538-7755.DISP13-A29