The Community Engagement and Dissemination Core (CEDC) works with both academic and community/tribal behavioral health stakeholders to share timely and appropriate behavioral health information that emerges from the TREE Center’s research and pilot projects.
In the first half of 2019, the CEDC Team focused on bringing back the community insights from our regional “Communities of Practice for Dissemination (COP4D)” collected in 2018 to help shape the upcoming new pilot research projects. The TREE RFA for pilot projects included insights from the COP4D’s, which directly shaped and influenced the behavioral health research in the state. This year also brought us the opportunity to work with two community members from the COP4Ds in proposal reviews. The proposal review training with them utilized a newly developed community-friendly rubric, which gave us valuable insights on how the pilot review processes can be enhanced for greater impact. It also permitted us to mentor community members on pilot reviews.
Many lessons were learned about the pilot review process these past few months, including: the need for the pilot RFA to require more detail of community engagement in the study; collaborate with community partners to ensure regional priorities are integrated; create opportunities for bi-directional learning/mentoring through pilot and research projects; work across and between regions in New Mexico; create transdisciplinary language concepts concerning Dissemination Science that are more accessible; and to continue to gain support to design and create Community-Centered Dissemination Science.
As the summer draws nearer, the CEDC team will re-engage with the COP4Ds across the state, visiting new sites in the same four regions (Northeast, Northwest, Southwest and Southeast) to expand the circle of community engagement. This time around we will share updates from the TREE center, listen to reflections on the annual report we sent, and learn/share recent behavioral health research specific to regional concerns, reflections and recommendations. A potential initiative could involve providing mini seed grants to individuals who are historically underrepresented researchers as possible seeding for future pilot projects. This will also be an opportunity to build on relationships and foster a network across the state so that we can build a net that truly works for the well-being of all New Mexicans.
