title: Colorado Immersion Training in Community Engagement: Because You Can't Study What You Don't Know.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Community engagement (CE)has become a major element in medical research. In alliance with the goals of the Clinical and Translational Sciences Award program, Colorado Immersion Training in Community Engagement (CIT) is a community-campus partnership that aims to introduce an expanded pool of researchers to community-based participatory research (CBPR) and CE.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To describe CIT components and preliminary results.
  
  
  METHODS
  CIT attempts to support a change in the research trajectory of academic health researchers, program developers, and graduate students toward CE. The program occurs on campus and in six community settings: Urban African American, urban Asian and refugee, urban Latino, urban American Indian/Alaska Native, rural northeast Colorado, and rural San Luis Valley. Components include a 4-week Directed Reading, a seminar on CBPR, 4-day community immersion, reflection, and 6-month support. Evaluation describes recruitment, implementation, and participants' understanding of CBPR and skills post-training.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fifty-eight people have participated. A comprehensive curriculum was developed to address (1) principals of CBPR, (2) health disparities, (3) listening to community, (4) self-reflection, and (5) engagement tools. Community immersions expose participants to a community's culture and opportunities to discuss health issues with a range of community members. Local "community guides" enhance participants' experience. Of the first two cohorts, 90% changed the way they plan to approach their research, 94% changed how they viewed community involvement in research, and 77% learned new skills to help engage communities in research.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CIT applies to and positively impacts researchers from a variety of disciplines. CIT creates opportunities for long lasting partnerships between researchers and communities.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zittleman
authors.forename: Leslie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Barrientos Charlene
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Ortiz
authors.forename: Candace
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fleming
authors.forename: Crystal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Loudhawk-Hedgepeth
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Marshall
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ramirez
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wheeler
authors.forename: John M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Westfall
mesh_terms: D003120:Colorado; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research / Q000379:methods*; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003162:Competency-Based Education / Q000379:methods*; D003479:Curriculum; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000193:education; D054525:Minority Health / Q000193:education*; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000193:education*; D035842:Research Subjects; D012423:Rural Health / Q000193:education; D012647:Self-Assessment; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical / Q000379:methods*; D014504:Urban Health / Q000193:education