What's New at the Decatur Community Partnership

By the end of September, 2007 the DCP had met our national goal of training 200 community leaders through ENACCTs clinical trials awareness workshops. Our strategy team and trainers’ knew that the hard work collectively made it a reality. The dedication made it possible for the goal to be reached in a relatively short period of time considering initial hurdles causing a slow start. Outreach to the Community Leader sector will continue and subsequent workshops will be focused on groups that may be more challenging for the Partnership to seek out.

We continued to make connections and found many opportunities for promoting our message either in presentations or health fair venues. We were able to educate over 150 individuals in 2 presentations and did at least 2 health fairs; one being the largest of its kind; the Farm Progress Show. This event comes to Decatur every other year over the next 30 years and draws over 30,000 people. We are fortunate to have a health tent for those in attendance to linger to and learn about health information. The local ENACCT team provided bright yellow ENACCT bags to over 1900 individuals as well as information on cancer clinical trials. We had members of the strategy team and CL lead trainers volunteer their time in 95 plus degree weather for three days to staff the table. This was another fine example of the Partnership’s commitment to ENACCT’s mission.

During the 3rd quarter, we rolled-out our local ENACCT marketing campaign through billboards and commercials on local radio stations [Click here to view more Decatur-ENACCT PR materials PDF 3MB]. We have received positive feedback on the bright yellow billboards and people have correlated us at the health fairs with the signs and commercials. We hope this will help in our endeavor to make cancer clinical trials familiar and comfortable words in our local households.

One of the most exciting moments in this quarter happened in September. The ENACCT Coordinator and another member of the strategy team made initial contact with the leader of the Amish community. By the leader’s request, the meeting was held at his home. We discussed the grant at length and answered their questions that spanned from cancer in general to the workshops themselves. We left the meeting in high hopes that they would be agreeable to allowing us to educate their community.

Knowing that we are over half way though our 3 year grant, it is exciting to see the progress made thus far. We continue to gain understanding of our community on a daily basis and how we can all better collaborate. We are looking very forward to targeting the HCP community. We know we may encounter some unique barriers within the medical community but we look forward with that same commitment that got us here in the first place!

For more information about any of the above information or to learn more about the DCPs future events, feel free to contact us at 217.876.6622.

Decatur-ENACCT Team

(From L to R) Leslie Roberts, Gwen West, Myrhh Hector, Renee Stivers, Mary Jane Linton, Abbey Britton (bottom front)