The overall mission and long-term goal of the CFCCC’s Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) component is to reduce cancer-related burdens in the Catchment Area through cancer monitoring, community outreach and education, strategic partnerships and coalitions, advocacy, and facilitation of research that promotes cancer health equity for all. This mission involves translating and disseminating the Center’s research into practice and policy, as well as communicating concerns and attitudes of the community to Center members to inform new research initiatives. COE also builds on well-known best practices to improve cancer prevention, early detection, and access to quality cancer care.

There are three pillars to our mission:

  1. Cancer Health Equity: Assess the cancer burden and disparities in communities, with an emphasis on reducing cancer incidence and mortality among diverse populations in Orange County and beyond;
  2. Partnerships that Respect Community Autonomy: Partner with communities to advance evidence-based cancer prevention and control practices that reduce these disparities in diverse populations;
  3. Policy and Systems Change: Promote policy development, implementation and evaluation to decrease cancer incidence and mortality, and that leverage and extend the impact of the UCI CFCCC to wider populations across the state and country.

 

Sora Park Tanjasiri, DrPH, MPH
Sora Park Tanjasiri, DrPH, MPH

Associate Director, Cancer Health Equity & Community Engagement

Professor, Epidemiology
Daniel Rivas, MA
Daniel Rivas, MA

Director for the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement

LOVE Collaboration
Love Our Vulnerable and Elderly (LOVE)

As part of an ongoing effort to serve Asian-American seniors and the vulnerable population in Orange County during this pandemic, Love Our Vulnerable and Elderly (LOVE), a partnership among nonprofits is asking for donations, supplies, food and volunteers to help with our mission. This is an ongoing effort to coordinate packaging and distribution of food and basic necessities to thousands in our community.

continued medical education
Advancing Care Together (ACCT) for Low-Income Asian Americans and Latinos

ACCT seeks more effective and efficient cancer care for Latino, Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese Medi-Cal beneficiaries, especially for the most prevalent cancers — malignancies of the breast, cervix, colon and rectum, liver and stomach. The goal is to create a hub and spoke model that connects patients with complex cancers to the cancer center, and patients with low and moderately complex cancers to community organizations, the county’s Medi-Cal managed-care program, federally qualified health centers, as well as to primary and specialty care providers.

Komen community event audience
American Cancer Society, WER Cancer Control Collaborative Project (CCCP) Grant

UCI Health Family Health Center - Santa Ana, CFCCC and CHOC Health Alliance are working together to increase HPV vaccination rates by 30 to 80 percent among boys and girls ages 11 to 13 in a pilot project funded by the American Cancer Society, Western Region.

clinical trials poster
Vietnamese Community Outreach

Cancer is the leading cause of death among Asian Americans in California. UCI’s CFCCC is dedicated to providing culturally competent and linguistically accessible support to better serve our Vietnamese community. Through the COE office, the CFCCC established a dedicated telephone line to a Vietnamese-speaking nurse to help navigate care, schedule appointments and answer general cancer services questions, please call 714-719-5612.

science presentation
Tobacco Prevention Activities

Tobacco prevention represents a priority concern in the Catchment Area. COE initiated new collaborations between CFCCC and 1-866-NEW-LUNG, an organization partly funded by the Orange County Health Care Agency that provides free quit-smoking/vaping services including classes, quit kits, free nicotine patches, and follow-up support. COE also participates in the Tobacco and Vape Free Orange County Coalition to reduce the use of tobacco and exposure to secondhand smoke and e-cigarette use in OC.

beach with palm trees
California Cancer Plan 2021-2025

California’s Comprehensive Cancer Control Plan, 2021–2025 (the state cancer plan) is a blueprint to reduce the cancer burden in the state. It is designed to provide guidance to individuals and organizations spanning health and social disciplines that have a role in impacting cancer control. Dr. Sora Park Tanjasiri, Associate Director, Cancer Health Equity and Community Engagement at the CFCCC, served on the executive committee that created this plan.

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