Engagement in Research Interactive Workshop: Developing and Implementing Your Community/Patient Engagement Plan

In this session, participants will have the opportunity to ask questions about and seek feedback on their patient and/or community engagement plans from facilitators (UNC engagement staff & community partners) and other attendees. This session serves as an interactive workshop in which participants will get a chance to: 1) discuss their engagement plans; 2) troubleshoot issues they are experiencing; 3) get new ideas while learning from others; and 4) leave the session with an updated engagement plan document.

To attend, participants must be in the process of developing or implementing a patient and/or community engagement plan for an active or upcoming project. Those who have engagement plans from previous projects may also be interested in attending, as this workshop may present an opportunity to improve upon or revise a prior engagement plan for future use. Participants must have attended one or more of the Engaging Patient, Community, and Other Partners in Your Research: Online Training Series sessions offered by NC TraCS and UNC Lineberger OR have some knowledge of engagement in research, whether from prior trainings or personal experience. This workshop focuses on research partner engagement, which involves collaborating with patient, community, or other partners who are not enrolled in your study to improve the study’s design, conduct, and/or dissemination (it does NOT focus on research participant engagement, where the goal is to retain participants who are enrolled in a study).

Preparing for this workshop: When completing the Eligibility Screener in Qualtrics, you will have the opportunity to download the 1-page Engagement Plan Template. You do not have to submit your engagement plan in advance of the workshop; however, please come to the session with an engagement plan document that you can share with the group during discussion (e.g., a completed Engagement Plan Template or previously written engagement plan).

Workshop Facilitators & Presenters
Alicia Bilheimer, MPH – Director, Engaged Science (NC TraCS)
Veronica Carlisle, MPH, CHES – Senior Community Health Educator (UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center)
Nisha Datta, MS – Patient & Clinical Engagement Specialist (NC TraCS)
Simone Frank, MPH – Community Engagement/Outreach Specialist (NC TraCS)
Milenka Jean-Baptiste, MPH, Qualitative Research Specialist (NC TraCS)
Jennifer Potter, MPH, CHES – Senior Program Coordinator for Clinical Outreach (UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center)
Members of the NC TraCS Community and Patient Advisory Board (CPAB) and Lineberger Community Advisory Board (CAB)

Please note: We will not be presenting information about engaging patient, community, or other partners in research during this session; instead, we will ask participants to share where they are with their projects/engagement plans, ask questions about their engagement plans, and collectively discuss strategies for moving their engagement plans forward.