The mission of the Community Engagement Core is to help Environmental Health Sciences Center (EHSC) investigators apply their research assets in real-world contexts.

To fulfill our mission, we:

  1. Translate EHSC research results in environmental public health knowledge and disseminate that knowledge to targeted audiences
  2. Communicate audience issues, needs and concerns to EHSC investigators
  3. Advance the field of community engagement

Who we are

 

 
 
 

Background

 A vital part of the Environmental Health Sciences Center is community engagement. Currently, the Center supports research and community engagement to help understand what people are exposed to in their homes, at their work places and in their communities and to discover what hazards these exposures may pose to their health. The Community Outreach and Engagement Core has developed resources on environmental health for communities, researchers and educators. Our Core disseminates these resources through outreach events, on-line social media and is involved in several community-based projects. Below is a short timeline of our history within the Center.

1993 - Community outreach and engagement became part of the Center. Focus was on pesticides, food safety, toxicology and multiple chemical sensitivity.

1996 - Collaboration with the SMILE program resulted in an after-school program for minority students titled "Improving Understanding of Environmental Health Science."

1999 - The Core joined the ToxRap Education and Training Program.

2000-2007 - The Hydroville Curriculum Project, a comprehensive high school curricula, was funded for seven years.

2003 - The Core joined the Health Observances and Public Education (HOPE) Partnership

2004 - Conducted the Fishing for Answers on the Willamette River Community Forum

2005 - The Core created Unsolved Mysteres of Human Health: How Scientists Study Toxic Chemicals and Health

2006-2008 - Hydroville Curriculum Project adapted for adult education and integrated into a community college curricula

2008 - The Core partnered with the National Pesticide Information Center to develop Pestibytes.

2008-2011 - The Core partnered with Extension Service for the Oregon Partnership to Improve Health in the Home (EH @Home)

2011 - Joined the Portland Harbor Partnership

2012 - Gulf Oil Spill Research Outreach

2013 - The Core partnered with EHSC investigators on community-based projects