Connect: Cultivating academic/community partnerships to address our communities' complex needs during public health crises

Online Publication Date:
August 15, 2022
Publication Status:
Awaiting Publication
Manuscript PDF File:

**Forthcoming in Progress in Community Health Partnerships (PCHP). All rights reserved.**

ABSTRACT
Background: Black and Latino communities have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and we sought to understand perceptions and attitudes in four heavily impacted NJ counties to develop and evaluate engagement strategies to enhance access to testing.
Objective: To establish a successful academic/community partnership team during a public health emergency by building upon longstanding relationships and using principles from community engaged research.
Methods: We present a case study illustrating multiple levels of engagement, showing how we successfully aligned expectations, developed a commitment of cooperation, and implemented a research study, with community-based and healthcare organizations at the center of community engagement and recruitment.
Lessons Learned: This paper describes successful approaches to relationship building including information sharing and feedback to foster reciprocity, diverse dissemination strategies to enhance engagement, and intergenerational interaction to ensure sustainability.
Conclusions: This model demonstrates how academic/community partnerships can work together during public health emergencies to develop sustainable relationships.