GCRC Minority Outreach Program

The GCRC Outreach Program is focused primarily on the dissemination of information about opportunities for participation in clinical research. All IRB and GCRC Scientific Advisory Committee-approved protocols are eligible, at the option of the investigator, to be processed through the outreach program. The components of this program are as follows:

• Incorporation of a brief description of the study, the study population, and the contact person and telephone number into a news sheet produced from GCRC administration and entitled Study Highlights. This news sheet is not only posted prominently throughout Fletcher Allen Health Care and the University of Vermont campus, but is posted on the GCRC web site, and made available to publicity officers both within and outside the institution.
• Dissemination of individual announcements, or the Study Highlights document described above, through newspaper or radio or television announcements. Although individual investigators are often required to pay for these services, the Program has been successful in any cases in reducing or entirely abolishing the normal fees associated with such advertising processes.
• Dissemination of individual information or the Study Highlights document to the office of Minority Health at the Vermont State Department of Health. This office has formed extensive ties to many community-based and professional organizations serving communities of color and minorities in Vermont. These organizations include Abenaki Self Help, ALANA Community Organization, Austin School for the Deaf, Burlington Community Health Center, Burlington Council on Refugees and Immigrants, Dawnland Native American Center, Vermont Refugee Assistance Program, Refugee Resettlement Program, Tibetan Resettlement Project, Vietnamese Association, Vermont Red Cross Language Bank, Africans in Motion for Communities of Color, Vermont Human Rights Commission, Burlington Community Economic Development Office, Green Mountain Lao Association, Missisquoi Health Center, Vermont Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights, Vermont Aids Council, American Civil Liberties Union, Racial Justice and Equity Project, Multicultural Council of Vermont, Medical Student Alana Group and Community Health Awareness Project. Many of these organizations have either informal, or increasingly, formal information networks often including newsletters. The Office of Minority Health also keeps an up-to-date listing of interpreters who are available throughout the State of Vermont to translate consent forms and dialogues between investigators and subjects into any of the numerous languages and dialects spoken amongst these communities.

Contact:

Fernando Ona, PhD, MPH, REHS
Director of Minority Health and Health Disparities
Vermont Department of Health
Phone: (802) 652-2096