ENACCT and Lance Armstrong Foundation Award Funding to Three Community Partners

ENACCT AND LANCE ARMSTRONG FOUNDATION AWARD FUNDING TO THREE COMMUNITY PARTNERS 

Partnerships Will Develop Innovative Approaches to Developing Community Literacy about
Clinical Research

SILVER SPRING, MD – February 3, 2006 – In an effort to raise public awareness and improve access to cancer clinical trials, the Education Network to Advance Cancer Clinical Trials (ENACCT) and its founding partner the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) are pleased to announce the recipients of its Pilot Education Program grants. 
 
Over the next three years, ENACCT will provide financial support, training and technical assistance to three community organizations: The Cross Cultural  Collaborative of Pierce County, Tacoma, Wash.; Cherishing Our Hearts and Souls Coalition (COHS), Boston, Mass.; Decatur Community Partnership, Decatur, Ill. 
 
Through these grants, ENACCT seeks to address the issue of community literacy around clinical trials – changing knowledge, attitudes and beliefs and intention among
both health care providers and community leaders – to ultimately enhance access and increase participation in clinical trials.
 
From a national competitive process with more than 60 applicants, these groups were awarded funding to work collaboratively with community leaders to increase awareness about cancer clinical trials:

• The Cross Cultural Collaborative of Pierce County: With previous work in improving tobacco prevention and cessation among ethnically diverse groups, for the last four years the coalition has been working collaboratively to promote community health and systematic change in formal and informal health care systems to be accessible, available and culturally appropriate for all. 
• Cherishing Our Hearts and Souls Coalition: COHS is a five year-old coalition with a mission to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities through social transformation strategies. Over the next three years, COHS will increase Roxbury, Mass., residents’ knowledge of Cancer Clinical Trials (CCT), reduce fear and mistrust of research and work with other ENACCT-PEP sites to develop models for increasing under-represented populations in CCTs. 
• Decatur Community Partnership: Made up of community organizations and health care professionals, its mission is to promote collaborative programs to improve the quality of life and the health of Macon County, Ill., residents.  Through its work with ENACCT, DCP will enhance its partnership’s capacity and scope and institutionalize the outreach and education programs developed through ENACCT. The partnership will work to engage the community to break down barriers to clinical trials, addressing specific barriers for patients, physicians, the medically underserved and the Amish and Mennonite community.  

 
“These unique partnerships will help provide better informed and more effective practices for clinical trial education that are replicable and grounded in ‘real-world’ experience,” said Margo Michaels, executive director of ENACCT. “Innovative approaches such as these can help reduce the gaps in clinical trial access and accrual.”
 
Several national studies have shown that most people with cancer are unaware that participation in clinical trials is a treatment option.  
 
“Despite a number of national and local initiatives attempting to address barriers to clinical trials, none have adequately addressed perhaps the most critical need – helping local communities learn about trials and addressing local barriers to access,” said Mitch Stoller, president and chief executive officer of the LAF.  “The Lance Armstrong Foundation is pleased to be working with ENACCT on this unique effort.”