Panel Discussion 27 - Extending Our Reach: Utilizing Clinical and Research Approaches to Bolster Community Engagement and Social Advocacy Among Underrepresented and Harder-to-reach Couples

Marginalized communities experience health disparities and limited access to care, often because of societal, infrastructural, and cultural barriers (Thomas et al., 2014). Community-based participatory research aims to initiate population-level changes to address health inequities and prioritize the concerns of community members (CDC, 2015). This is accomplished by recognizing power imbalances and encouraging information to be exchanged between researchers and community members. However, researchers face challenges to facilitating community partnerships hindering potential implications for the marginalized community (Cyril et al., 2015).

This panel will feature five experts who specialize in working with underserved and hard-to-reach couples and families and will highlight the need to amplify the expressed healthcare and community support needs of marginalized couples. Moreover, panelists will highlight the advocacy efforts required to conduct research in institutional systems with stark histories of oppression. Panelist 1 will emphasize experiences from partnering with community organizations and working within institutional systems to promote the needs of sexual minority and military couples including those in rural areas. Panelist 2 will discuss approaches for collaborating with community agencies when working with low-income families, including challenges with developing partnerships. Panelist 3 will discuss how the research infrastructure can engage hard-to-reach couples in help seeking, serve as a resource, and monitor safety risks among racially diverse, urban, and rural low-income families. Panelist 4 will discuss approaches for setting up a clinic targeting the underserved and outlining the importance of collaborating with stakeholders for dissemination and implementation purposes. Panelist 5 will describe approaches for leveraging research efforts for advocacy and social justice among individuals with diverse sexual and gender identities. Through this discussion, panelists will suggest approaches for establishing connections with community partners to better advocate for marginalized communities and outline common challenges and possible solutions for overcoming these barriers.