Community Outreach and Engagement

Community Outreach and Engagement is a central component of the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center since its inception in 2007 when the Office of Outreach and Health Disparities was established. The COE, led by the OOHD, leverages over a decade of working with academic and community partners to promote cancer awareness and prevention in the Greater Houston area and surrounding counties, with a primary focus on the medically underserved and racial/ethnic minority populations. Its key activity is to ensure that the diverse and medically underserved patient population areas benefit from innovative outreach, education, screening, and primary prevention strategies.

The COE serves as a driver for translating research from the Research Programs and Disease Working Groups into practice in the greater Houston and surrounding areas.

The COE believes outreach and engagement with the Houston area communities are vital to promoting health equity. Through the years, the COE has implemented multi-pronged approaches to community outreach, education, access to cancer screening and prevention, community-engaged research, policy, and advocacy.

• We continuously monitor the cancer burden and risk factors in the Duncan Cancer Center catchment area and promote the engagement of research programs to address the cancer burden and disparities in the catchment area.
• We engage the Duncan Cancer Center catchment area populations in cancer prevention, control, survivorship outreach, education, and research to reduce cancer burden and disparities in the catchment area.
• The COE disseminates and promotes the integration of evidence-based interventions and findings from research Duncan Cancer Center programs, locally (e.g., in our catchment area), regionally, nationally, and globally through outreach, collaboration, and policy.

This work is accomplished with guidance from our Community Advisory Board and in close collaboration with Duncan Cancer Center Programs. It leverages the COE’s strong expertise in developing patient-centered educational resources, methods to address cancer disparities, and implementing and disseminating multi-pronged, evidence-based interventions into practice.