The University of Washington/Fred Hutch (UW/Fred Hutch) Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) Office of Community Engagement (OCE) mission is to provide leadership and support to the UW/Fred Hutch CFAR community and broader local communities to support effective and responsive HIV-related science. To do this, the UW/Fred Hutch CFAR OCE leads efforts to develop, enhance, and sustain bidirectional partnerships between UW/Fred Hutch CFAR researchers and community organizations and members. These bidirectional partnerships serve to support meaningful involvement of communities in the design, implementation, and dissemination of research, and to support capacity building among CFAR researchers, and overall better science.
Watch our video about how the OCE advances community-engaged research:
- Develop, enhance, and sustain collaborative partnerships between community organizations and members, and the UW/Fred Hutch CFAR;
- Develop best practices for community engagement in HIV science;
- Facilitates and/or collaborate on projects aimed at characterizing and addressing social and structural determinants of health, including stigma, scientific literacy, xenophobia, and racism.
- Community Consultative Group (CCG)
- The CCG will provide guidance and expertise advice to the OCE and CFAR by supporting and performing research design consultative services to CFAR researchers, leading and supporting community outreach activities, and support ad hoc working groups, and collaborate on projects and research studies.
- Ad Hoc Working Groups
- Ad hoc working groups will be established to support specific activities and initiatives of the OCE. One of the longstanding working groups is the Stigma Working Group.
- Projects
- UW/Fred Hutch CFAR New Investigator Award (NIA) Reviews: The OCE’s Community Consultative Group (CCG) provides pre-submission consultations to NIA candidates to help ensure that their proposed research concepts, implementation and dissemination plans, and impacts are inclusive of and beneficial to affected communities. The CCG also reviews and comments on final NIA submissions.
- “Shadow of HIV exceptionalism 40 years later,” co-authored by Drs. Michela Blain, Stephaun Wallace and Courtney Tuegel, and published in Journal of Medical Ethics, 2021 Jan 27:medethics-2020-106908.
- Research Design Consultations
- Technical assistance to help researchers to positively engage and impact communities affected by HIV/AIDS
- To arrange for a consultation, email your request and completed OCE Consultation Form to cfaroce@uw.edu
- Community building/mobilization activities/events to maintain and enhance key community partnerships
- Meet the Researcher Event Series: Community-oriented discussions with HIV investigators whose work addresses social and structural determinants of health, including stigma, scientific literacy, xenophobia, and racism. View Meet the Researcher Event recordings here.
- Town Halls: Discussions with CFAR community partners about their impact and collaboration priorities, to exchange ideas and resources around ending the HIV epidemic, and to report back on CFAR community engagement activities and results. View OCE Town Hall recordings and highlights here.
- Annual Community-Based Organization Field Trip & Panel Discussion: Features organizations serving communities affected by HIV. Organized as part of the “Principles of STI and HIV Research and Public Health Practice” summer course at the UW. View the Virtual CBO Panel Discussions here.
- Establishing Trust: Basic Principles and Practical Examples for Researchers on How to Partner with Community. View the video-only recording of the event on the CFAR YouTube channel here, or view the video with chat and transcript notes here.
- YMCA of Greater Seattle Health Promotion Events: Connect local researchers and community members to discuss critical healthcare and equity challenges. View recordings and highlights here.
- Collaborations with other CFARs to share best practices and enhance community engagement across the CFAR network
- Collaborations with HIV CABs in the Seattle area to share best practices and enhance community engagement in the greater Seattle area
- Facilitation of and/or collaborations on community-centered research and projects that characterize and address social and structural determinants of health, including stigma, scientific literacy, xenophobia, and racism
- CFAR Seminar Series: The OCE helps to ensure that CFAR scientific talks encourage and account for professional variety within its audiences as a key best practice for research dissemination. The OCE promotes CFAR Seminar events featuring community-centered research, as well as provides event speakers with a plain-language summary slide template and other tools to help their presentation conform to modern NIAID HIV Language Guide standards. To access these plain language tools, visit the OCE Resources page.
- Facilitation of and/or collaborations on community-led research and projects that focus on the science of community engagement
Check out our OCE education and training resources:
Meet our partnering organization:
Louis Shackelford, OCE Director
Michael Louella, OCE Community Liaison
Erica Crittendon, Community Consultative Group Member
Nahom Daniel, Community Consultative Group Member
Steven Sawyer, Community Consultative Group Member
Rahel Schwartz, Community Consultative Group Member
Tasia Baldwin, Community Consultative Group Member
Office of Community Engagement
UW/Fred Hutch Center for AIDS Research
Department of Global Health
Hans Rosling Center
UW Box 351620
Seattle, WA 98105
cfaroce@uw.edu