Facility Details

The Sylvester Behavioral and Community-Based Research Shared Resource (BCSR) provides services and expertise that facilitate behavioral, psychosocial, community, translational, and population-based oncology research. Services include (1) coordinating the recruitment and retention of diverse study participants representative of Sylvester’s South Florida catchment area (one of the most multicultural and multilingual regions in the US); (2) supporting the development of culturally and linguistically tailored study materials; (3) facilitating data collection and management, including for biospecimens, in clinical and community settings (e.g., conducting focus groups and administering surveys and qualitative interviews); (4) assisting with the development and delivery of evidence-based interventions across the cancer continuum from prevention to survivorship; and (5) offering seminars, workshops and training. The BCSR offers consultation on culturally appropriate approaches for study implementation and provides translation of study materials (such as informed consent forms and research protocols) into Spanish and/or Haitian Creole, to enhance broad-based recruitment potential. BCSR services facilitate participation in Sylvester’s interventional and non-interventional research studies. Moreover, the expertise and services offered by the BCSR are fundamental in helping to ensure that the Cancer Center’s research is representative of its catchment area’s unique sociodemographic diversity, one of the most multicultural and multilingual regions in the United States. The BCSR helps investigators develop innovative mechanisms to engage and recruit specific populations for their research endeavors and ensures study materials, including data collection instruments, are appropriately aligned with the cultural, linguistic, and other community needs of a given target population. The BCSR also has extensive expertise in conducting focus groups, ethnographies, in-depth key informant interviews, and other qualitative research methods, and has experience in training Community Health Workers (CHWs) to participate in research. The BCSR employs community-based participatory research methodologies, working together with the Community Advisory Committee (CAC) and a network of neighborhood-based community committees to facilitate outreach and partnership for research and to promote health and social change in South Florida. The BCSR is part of the research branch of the Cancer Center’s Jay Weiss Institute for Health Equity, and BCSR staff regularly collaborate with the Community Engagement Program at the UM Clinical and Translational Science Initiative (CTSI). The BCSR also works closely with the Sylvester Office of Outreach and Engagement (SOOE), which engages diverse stakeholders throughout South Florida in a dialogue about cancer prevention and collaborative research opportunities. The BCSR builds upon these established relationships to help investigators implement high-impact, innovative research reflective of the local cancer burden and/or the unique distribution of cancer risk factors.