Community Outreach & Translation Core
The CHAPS Community Outreach and Translation Core (COTC) works to maintain strong community relationships, capture and apply valuable community input, and share CHAPS research activities and results with the broader community to improve children's health.
CAB members discuss recommendations for participant retention
Community Advisory Board
We convene a Community Advisory Board (CAB) composed of diverse group of experts and stakeholders. We hold quarterly meetings to share research progress and discuss relevant issues with local stakeholders. We encourage our CHAPS CAB members to connect us with other interested networks in the community and share CHAPS findings to impact policies and decisions impacting children's health and air pollution.
Youth Leadership
CHAPS also aims to build youth leadership around environmental health issues and research in the Fresno/Clovis area. As a research project that is studying children throughout their development, it is important to the CHAPS team to also work with local youth to engage them in learning about air pollution, develop new leaders in environmental health and expose them to public health research. We have partnered with a local specialized high school program at the Center for Advanced Research and Technology (CART) since 2014. We have found many ways to interact with CART students over the years, and are proud of the environmental health leaders we are helping to develop.
CART Spring Mentorship Project Air Pollution Team 2016
CHAPS Research Team, CAB members and participants' families at the CHAPS Family Picnic in June 2017 at Fresno's Woodward Park.
Outreach and Communications
The COTC also develops communications tools and learning events to increase awareness about issues related to children's health and air pollution. We have developed fact sheets, a Facebook page, our website, a joint symposium on Asthma, Air Pollution and Health in the San Joaquin Valley, health provider training events, CHAPS study participant engagement events, and more.
We are closely connected to the Central California Asthma Collaborative, and we are always looking for new partnerships and projects we can support to inform our participants and their families, healthcare providers, educators, children's advocates, air quality advocates, students or any other interested groups.