Senior Associate Director, CRESP University of Delaware Newark, Delaware, United States
In order to strengthen the bi-directional relationship between ACCEL scientists and the community, the ACCEL Community Engagement and Outreach (CEO) sponsors an annual Community Research Exchange (CRE) to encourage and support research addressing the health priorities of Delawareans. The CRE aims to increase community engagement in ACCEL projects by offering an opportunity to: educate and engage the community in research; provide networking for researchers and the community; and create energy around specific themes as they are identified. This paper will present how the results of the demographic data collected from CRE participants and survey respondents over the past several years have been used by ACCEL leadership to inform and promote research, projects, and initiatives addressing the pressing problems important to the community. The discussion will include the decisions about the collection and use of demographic data to align community and researchers’ work as well as associated considerations concerning terminology, autonomy to self-identify, privacy, and rationale for collecting the data.
