Community Engagement and Advocacy Resources

CTSI Equity in Research Core – The Equity in Research (EIR) Core aspires to elevate, advance, and accelerate equitable, inclusive, anti-racist, and anti-biased research. The EIR Core aims to:

• Provide infrastructure support for research teams and CTSA Cores to promote equity, anti-bias, and anti-racism across all aspects of the research process and environment.
• Shift the research culture toward proactive and robust planning for diversity, equity, and inclusion in clinical and translational science research

EIR services and resources help the Duke research community to:

• Develop intentional recruitment strategies
• Deepen awareness of personal, cultural, and system fears and biases
• Understand the history of abuse and exploitation in clinical trials and medicine
• Create inclusive study materials
• Foster equitable community engagement
• Enhance participant diversity by engaging with special populations

Core services provided by EIR include:

• Resources and study material development
• Workshops and trainings
• Consultations
• Equity in Research curriculum for TL1 and KL2 scholars and the National Clinician Scholars Program
• Community connections

Community Engaged Research Initiative (CERI) – The Community Engaged Research Initiative (CERI) facilitates equitable, authentic, and robust community-engaged research to improve health and health equity.

• Submit a request for more information or a consultation
• Learn about upcoming CERI Trainings & Workshops
• Access the CERI e-Library for local and national resources around community engagement and community engaged research, including A Researcher’s Guide to Community Engaged Research

Recruitment Innovation Center (RIC) – The Recruitment Innovation Center (RIC) provides Duke’s clinical research community with connections, collaborations, and resources to support efficient and effective engagement, recruitment and retention.

IC’s free, tailored one-on-one consultation services, studios, and training options include:

• Accrual and Retention Consultation: We offer tailored one-on-one consultations and training for investigators, study staff, departments and divisions.
• MyChart Invitation language review, editing and formatting: We can help you craft an engaging, informative invitation in MyChart to send research invitations to potentially eligible patients.
• Social Media Advertising Consults: The Recruitment Innovation Center maintains Discover Duke Research a centralized social media hub that the Duke research community can utilize to share posts about their work or use as a platform to launch advertisements that run on Facebook and/or Instagram.
  Let us know if you're interested in scheduling a Social Media consultation for your study.
• Clinical Trials Directory Postings: We can help you get your study posted on the Duke Health Clinical Trials Directory. Email us at studyrecruitment@duke.edu to request a template for listing your study.

Sexual and Gender Diversity Advisory Council (SAGDAC) – The Sexual and Gender Diversity Advisory Council (SAGDAC) is a multidisciplinary, cross-institution gathering of LGBTQ+ stakeholders who serve as a think tank and hub for LGBTQ+ initiatives at Duke.

Community-Campus Partnerships for Health – Community-Campus Partnerships for Health’s mission is to promote health equity and social justice through partnerships between communities and academic institutions.

• Access CCPH’s video library of resources, webinars, and trainings
• Recording: Sustaining Partnerships: Cultivating an Ecosystem for Sustainability Promoting Practices

Association of American Medical Colleges Center for Health Justice – The AAMC Center For Health Justice sparks community-centered, multisector research, collaboration, and action to make the case for policies and practices that ensure all communities have an equal opportunity to thrive.

• Access the AAMC’s Community Engagement Toolkits

North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services – The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is launching a Community Partner Engagement Plan to ensure the voices of North Carolina communities and families continue to be at the center of the department’s work. This includes a new website and improvements to internal processes for engaging community partners, as well as groups with lived experience, to make policy change that best serves the people of the state.

• Visit NCDHHS’s Community and Partner Engagement website to find resources, capacity-building opportunities, educational tools, and lists of key partners and advisory groups.

• ChatGPT Cheat Sheet for Community Engagement
  • Without the right prompts it can be difficult to make the most out of ChatGPT. Here are a few quick ideas to help you master ChatGPT for community engagement.
• Toolkit: The Principles of Trustworthiness
  • This toolkit of materials is for organizations to download and use to facilitate discussions within their communities, develop relationships with a broad coalition, and track lessons learned. It includes the kinds of questions, discussions, and activities that will help an organization and its community to unpack the Principles of Trustworthiness, explore how they come to life locally, and determine what local actions might be taken to demonstrate trustworthiness.
• NCDHHS Community and Partner Engagement Guide
• Toolkit: Best Practices for Community Partner Compensation
  • Note: The Duke CFAR can provide consultation and guidance on paying community consultants through the Duke AP Check Request system
• Design Justice Network Principles
  • Design justice rethinks design processes, centers people who are normally marginalized by design, and uses collaborative, creative practices to address the deepest challenges our communities face.
• Article: What Lessons it Might Teach Us! Community Engagement in HIV Research
  • Partnerships between academia and the community led to historic advances in HIV and paved the way for ongoing community engagement in research. Three decades later, we review the state of community engagement in HIV research, discuss best practices as supported by literature, explore innovations, and identify ongoing gaps in knowledge.
• Books on Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR):
  • Innovations in HIV Prevention Research and Practice through Community Engagement
    • Find this title at the Duke Library
  • Community-Based Participatory Research for Health: Advancing Social and Health Equity, 3rd Edition
    • Find this title at the Duke Library

• Schedule a consultation with the Community Engagement team to practice effective communication, particularly for non-academic or interdisciplinary audiences
• Why Language Matters: Facing HIV Stigma in Our Own Words
  • Learn more about why language matters and preferred language about HIV from The Well Project
• Access slides from our Scientific Communication workshop and view the notes to learn more about these tips:
  • Think about your audience
  • Identify your key takeaways
  • Start with building blocks and definitions
  • Identify jargon & clarify
  • Avoid stigmatizing language
  • Engage the listener
  • As a listener… ask questions even when it’s uncomfortable
• Watch the SBS Core Rocket Talks:
  • Scientific Communication Series: Policy Communication
  • Scientific Communication Series: Media Communication
  • Rocket talk on non-stigmatizing language and health equity guiding principles

Poster Resources

• See Eric Monson’s Effective Academic Posters talk and accompanying resources
• Learn more about the Better Poster movement

Developing an Infographic

Purpose: Scientific posters are often written for a discipline-specific audience and contain a lot of text. The purpose of an infographic flyer is to communicate key takeaways of your research and research process to a general audience with the use of helpful visuals and clear language.

Key Information:

• Avoid jargon! If there is a term you feel is important to use that won’t be known by a wide audience, be sure to define it using plain language
• Focus on a key message – What is important for someone in the public to know about the work that you do?
• Use visuals – avoid directly copying a figure or graph from a paper or poster. Instead, think about your key message and what can help support that information. Do you want to visually highlight an important statistic? Is it helpful to illustrate a process happening in the body or a cell? Can you create a visual metaphor? Is there an image that can help put context to your key message?
• Make it readable! Use white space and large font (recommended minimum font size of 16pt) and keep it simple as needed so your key message comes through.
• Think about your audience – You can even try showing it to a friend or family member who isn’t familiar with the science behind your research and get their feedback. Do they understand what you are communicating? Is it interesting?

Helpful resources:

• There are many tools and software available to help create infographics, including free versions. A few we recommend:
  • Canva: https://www.canva.com/
  • Venngage: https://venngage.com/
  • Piktochart: https://piktochart.com/
  • Visme: https://www.visme.co/
•  There are also many tools available to help create scientific illustrations and guides that compare options and give tips
• Here is a video on How to Make an Infographic in 5 Steps that may be helpful as you work on your design
  • This video gives examples of some more complex infographics – yours can be simpler, but hopefully the tips are still helpful!
  • As you think about defining your “burning problem,” it can help to think about the public health relevance of your research. How does it apply to individuals or communities? Why is it important?

See the CFAR Retreat resources page for examples and inspiration.

• North Carolina AIDS Action Network: to volunteer or donate to help with community outreach, care navigation, and advocacy
• Triangle Empowerment Center: to volunteer or donate to help with advocacy, awareness, and support for people living with or at risk of HIV
• CAARE: The Healing Center: to volunteer or donate to help with integrated delivery of health and wellness, education, counseling, treatment, and case management for people living with HIV and others in the community
• LGBTQ+ Center of Durham: to volunteer or donate to help provide advocacy and services to LGBTQ+ individuals in Durham
• El Centro Hispano: to volunteer or donate to help provide advocacy and services to Latinx individuals in Durham
• NC Harm Reduction Coalition: to learn more or donate to support grassroots advocacy to implement harm reduction interventions, drug policy transformation, and justice reform in North Carolina.
• Alliance of AIDS Services - Carolina: to volunteer or donate to help with prevention, supportive services, and connection to care
• Latinos in the South: to learn more or donate to support community mobilization efforts to increase access to healthcare for Latino communities in the South
• Durham County Department of Public Health: to learn more about local efforts and services to advance health equity

If you know of an organization you would like to add, please email Lizzy Knippler.