Community Engagement Core (CEC)

Statement of Purpose

The CEC facilitates the multi-directional exchange of knowledge among CLEAR Center researchers, residents, local organizations, and other stakeholders in Detroit and the surrounding region. The CEC advances the CLEAR mission by improving the health and reducing disparities across the local community through community engagement, outreach and education across Detroit. 

Aims and Activities of the CEC

1. Creation of Community Advisory Board (CAB)

The CAB engages community leaders in bidirectional communication and knowledge exchange with CLEAR leaders to advance the impact of CLEAR. The CAB includes professionals and lay persons involved in organizations that represent diverse and vulnerable persons at risk for environmental health hazards. The CAB members share common concerns about the quality of our urban watershed, regional Superfund site contamination and remediation, and the rising incidence of adverse birth outcomes in Detroit and the surrounding region. With input from CLEAR program leaders who are familiar with the research capacity and capabilities of the Center, CAB meetings will identify and prioritize the most pressing environmental health issues that have been identified by the community. Such issues will guide the current and future efforts of CLEAR research projects and cores. CAB members and CLEAR program leaders will engage in a bi-directional exchange with the grass-roots community through focus group meetings, forums and other CEC-sponsored community events.

2. Creation of multiple mechanisms for bidirectional community engagement

By including residents in focus groups, community forums, surveys, conversations, and two-way text messaging communications, the CEC will inform the community of CLEAR’s research activities and engage in dialogue with community members about their environmental health concerns and priorities. The CEC will launch additional activities informed by the community’s concerns and priorities, including producing and disseminating educational newsletters and videos, recruiting and training citizen advocates to educate community members, surveying community members on their concerns about health hazards in the local environment, and conducting home assessments across Detroit to identify and mitigate sources of VOCs in the homes of community members.

3. Include Detroit residents as citizen scientists

Residents serve as citizen scientists in assessing the risks of VOCs in their homes, help them to understand these hazards, address their concerns and engage them in specific activities to reduce VOCs in their homes. After conducting each home assessment, the CEC will provide participating household members with customized reports that make specific recommendations for reducing VOCs in their home. The CEC will also provide resources to participating households, such as low-VOC products. For homes which contain the highest levels of VOCs, the CEC will connect these households with local resources that can assist with relocation or remediation.

4. Listen early and often to residents’ ideas

Residents can tell the CEC about what information they would like to receive regarding their home assessment and carefully construct a process for reporting findings, as well as gathering feedback on that information. Where necessary, the CEC will link them to key resources to improve their homes. Where residents are willing, the CEC will include them in the development of an agenda for intervention and prevention in Detroit. All CEC activities will use meaningful community engagement, education and empowerment to reduce exposure to VOCs, and promote better health outcomes for the community.

CEC Leaders