Partnering With Communities to Improve Health

NIH CEAL brings together community leaders, local health organizations, clinicians, and other community champions. This collaboration ensures that health research addresses the most critical issues in the community and generates appropriate solutions. NIH CEAL also ensures solutions can be developed to benefit the largest number of people and sustained going forward so that communities experience the tangible benefits of research discoveries.

What Is Community-Engaged Research? 

Community-engaged research is designed to involve the community in the research process, especially people who could benefit from or be affected by the research. In community-engaged research, research teams and communities work as equal partners to design and carry out studies, analyze data, and share and implement study findings. Community-engaged research provides science-based information essential for all communities to thrive.

NIH CEAL Programs 

This NIH-wide community engagement effort focuses on addressing differences in health outcomes and the social determinants of health that impede health in specific communities. Through its teams of community and academic partners, NIH CEAL currently supports community-engaged research through the following programs: 

The Alliance for Community Engagement – Partnership for Action Toward Health (ACE-PATH) is a community-engaged research program fostering the development of strategies to address the impact of regional challenges to health and promote promising practices to sustain healthy communities. Through strong partnerships with multiple collaborators, ACE-PATH aims to encourage implementation of community-driven, evidence-based practices to strengthen and improve local health conditions. 

The American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AI/AN-NHPI) Enrichment Initiative encourages community-driven, scientifically precise, intervention-based research. This research will address social and structural determinants of health impacting the prevention and management of chronic diseases and evolving public health threats in these communities. The Enrichment Initiative’s projects work to create sustainable research infrastructures that build healthy and resilient communities. 

The Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Regional Teams address chronic disease and emerging health threats in communities experiencing differences in health outcomes related to the social determinants of health. The program collaborates with nearly 1,000 organizations and community partners, including health care providers, hospital systems, academic and research organizations, schools, faith-based groups, nonprofits, and other community-based organizations.

The Community Engagement Alliance Consultative Resource (CEACR) supports NIH-funded research teams seeking to apply principles of community-engaged approaches to address differences in health outcomes and encourage participation in research programs. CEACR uses expertise in community engagement, along with resources from within CEAL, to provide tailored consultations through academic and community collaborations with the University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute and Community-Campus Partnerships for Health. 

The Health Knowledge Monitoring and Response System (HKMRS) Pilot is an effort that seeks to test the feasibility of building upon a network of community monitoring, prevalence assessment, and response to disrupt the spread of inaccurate health information and deliver timely, relevant, and accurate health information at the local and national levels.

The Implementing a Maternal health and PRegnancy Outcomes Vision for Everyone Community Implementation Program (IMPROVE-CIP) supports community-engaged implementation research to address factors that contribute to maternal mortality and severe illness, such as mental health, substance use, psychosocial factors, and social and structural determinants of health.

The Maternal Health Community Implementation Program (MH-CIP) aims to reduce maternal deaths and improve health outcomes for pregnant women, working to improve heart, lung, blood, and sleep health before, during, and after delivery. MH-CIP aligns with CEAL’s mission by emphasizing community engagement implementation research firmly connected to and embedded in affected communities. 

The Network for Community-Engaged Primary Care Research (NCPCR) uses community-engaged research in primary care settings. The NCPCR team designs and tests interventions to address differences in health outcomes and improve participation in biomedical research, including clinical studies and trials. The program also supports research studying awareness, education, and health information needs for biomedical research.