Implementation Phases
The work of the CNP will be carried out in three phases.
Phase I: Capacity Building (Years 1-5)
- Develop a core organizational infrastructure, including establishing and training Community Networks staff.
- Create partnerships with communities experiencing cancer disparities and organizations that can aid in reducing these disparities.
- Form at least four collaborations with NCI Centers/Divisions/Offices to support other NCI efforts to reduce cancer health disparities.
- Develop and implement community-based activities that focus on cancer education and on increasing participation in primary and secondary prevention programs, such as smoking cessation, screening and early detection, and associated activities that reduce health disparities.
- Leverage CNP activities by obtaining non-CRCHD funding for community-based education and training activities directed at reducing cancer disparities.
Phase II: Create Community-Based Research and Training Programs
(Years 2-5)
- Develop cancer disparities research projects that focus on the spectrum of research issues necessary to reduce cancer disparities, with emphasis on developing interventions that can be used in and by the community.
- Train researchers, particularly those from racial/ethnic minority and underserved populations, in community-based intervention research to reduce cancer disparities.
- Develop 1-year community-based pilot projects to support new investigators engaged in research on interventions that may reduce cancer health disparities.
Phase III: Establish Credibility and Sustainability of CNP (Years 4-5)
- Reduce cancer disparities locally by increasing participation in primary and secondary prevention activities and improving access to standard cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment.
- Document and publish information on efficacious interventions so that they can be implemented and used by other communities experiencing disparities.
- Obtain funding for research proposals (such as R01, R03, and K awards) to address disparity-related issues that have been identified through pilot projects and other community-based research activities.
- Provide evidence-based information on reducing disparities to decision and policy makers at the local, state, and Federal levels, including community-based findings that can reduce disparities in their communities.
