CE is of utmost importance for UM’s primary catchment area, Miami Dade County (MDC), given the region’s unparalleled multiculturalism, persistent income inequality, and unique environmental vulnerability, and is critical to the work of the proposed UM Superfund Program (UM-SRP), which aims to understand and ultimately attenuate the influence of undue of priority organic pollutants, such as phthalates, associated with plastic production. MDC has multiple Superfund sites within its borders; exposure to such sites is exacerbated for vulnerable communities, including the one geographically proximal to the Homestead Airforce Base.
CEC leadership and other key Center faculty have a 20+ year track record of working in a bi-directional manner with under-represented communities throughout MDC in developing, testing, and disseminating engagement approaches, and advancing collaborative science grounded in the principles of co-learning, trust, and respect. Such strategies rely on the tenets of participatory action research, including an equitable exchange of ideas to drive science that reflects mutual benefit, as well as a shared commitment to health equity and environmental justice. The CEC is exceptionally well-positioned to continue developing and testing tools, resources, and strategies, which expand our capacity to optimally engage communities, and other key stakeholders in research now and in the future. In the coming decades, the demographic composition of most US metropolitan areas will mirror that of SoFL today. Disseminating our successful approaches can serve as a roadmap for how NIEHS can maximize CE to overcome undue environmental exposures on vulnerable communities across the nation and beyond.
The CEC will leverage the robust infrastructure for community engagement, largely developed and maintained by our University’s Clinical Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and NCI-designated Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center (Sylvester), each nationally recognized for innovation and leadership in CE. To ensure that community priorities infuse all aspects of Center activity, the UM-SRP will work bi-directionally with key community stakeholders, including those who comprise the CTSI’s 25-member Community Advisory Board (CAB) comprised of stakeholders from various community-based organizations, including religious and educational institutions, civic leaders, and environmental groups, collectively committed to addressing the impact of pollution and climate change, more broadly. CEC focus will also be informed by other UM-developed resources, such as SCAN360, a data visualization platform widely used by UM investigators and the Florida Department of Health, and/or through data gleaned by mobile community outreach and research vehicles, known as Game Changer Vehicles (GCVs), that are integral to the CE activities of Sylvester. Dr. Erin Kobetz, the PI for the proposed CEC, oversees the CE activities of Sylvester and of CTSI, and is in a unique position to maximize the synergy between them and the UM-SRP for greater, sustained impact.
In these roles, Kobetz oversees 13 Community Health Workers (CHWs), who match the linguistic, cultural, and geographic diversity of SoFL and are “boots on the ground”, critical for effectively engaging with MDC residents to appreciate emerging concerns about pollutants, particularly those associated with plastic production, and close gaps in education about plastics-exposures through targeted outreach. Through such interactions and those of Dream in Green, the primary community partner for the CEC, the CHWs will also identify prevention/intervention activities that align with community priorities for reducing the risks associated with plastic exposures and can ensure that UM-SRP research findings are effectively disseminated to community members for further social action. Our aims are as follows:
Aim 1: Bi-directionally engage with diverse stakeholders in MDC and within Homestead, specifically, with interest and expertise in addressing the impact of Superfund exposures on the environment and human health.
Aim 2: Conduct evidence-based education, and intervention activities in collaboration with key community partners to address gaps and enhance local capacity for attenuating the impact of Superfund exposures as well as enhancing collaborative translational research.
Aim 3: Ensure the UM-SRP research and training activities reflect the perspectives of community partners whose lives are unduly affected by Superfund exposures.