Wake Forest Translational Science Institute (TSI)

Education & Collaboration

The Program in Community Engagement supports several activities to facilitate collaboration among community members, community health care providers, and scientists in the translational research enterprise.

• Focused Skill Workshops
• Mini-Courses
• Speakers Bureau
• Program Consultation
• Research Internships and Externships
• Council of Community Outreach Coordinators

Focused Skill Workshops

These workshops address the development of specific research, dissemination, topical, or program skills related to community engagement.  Topics for these workshops are suggested by community members, community health care providers, or university researchers.  Workshops include a single 2 - 4 hour meeting presented at locations appropriate for the audiences.

Mini-Courses

Similar to the Focused Skill Workshops, these mini-courses address skills needed for community engagement, but in more depth.  Each mini-course includes several 2-hour meetings.  Mini-course students have assignments to complete between sessions.  Course topics are suggested by community members, community health care providers, or university researchers.

Speakers Bureau

A list of speakers and presentations on health topics is available for health care providers and their patients to provide informative seminars on topics of interest.  Presentations are normally for 30 to 60 minutes.  Speakers have been recruited from the Wake Forest faculty and other organizations.  Additional topics can be suggested by community members, community health care providers, or university researchers.  Learn more about the Speakers Bureau.

Program Consultation

The Program in Community Engagement assists community organizations, community health care providers, and faculty members to develop partnerships in four key areas.

• Dissemination: We identify opportunities for community engaged research and programs by reviewing guides for funding announcements.  These opportunities are disseminated electronically to all affiliates.  Researchers and community members with particular interest in an opportunity are contacted directly.
• Project design and development: This includes discussing proposal ideas, reviewing proposal content and design, and editing applications.
• Implementation and Evaluation: We advise teams on all aspects of implementing and evaluating community-engaged programs and projects.
• Brokering: We help faculty researchers and community groups find counterparts with similar research interest, and help broker these relationships.

Research Internships and Externships

One of the goals of the Program in Community Engagement is to build, sustain, and expand the interest and capacity of community members and Wake Forest School of Medicine researchers to collaborate in translational science.  The research internship program furthers this goal by familiarizing community organization staff with how research is conducted, affording them the opportunity to learn about research design and proposal development.  Research externships familiarize Wake Forest research scientists with how community organizations function, the obstacles they encounter, and how community-linked research can be implemented. 

Both research internships and externships are paid, twelve-month programs of study.  Internships require a 20% time commitment.  Externships require a 10% time commitment.  Multiple research mentors can be used during the course of the internship.  Multiple community organizations can serve as host sites for externs.

Learn more about our 2011-2012 Interns and Externs.

Council of Community Outreach Coordinators

Many of the institutes, centers, and departments within the Wake Forest Baptist Health system have community outreach and community engagement programs.  One of the goals of the Program in Community Engagement and Implementation (PCEI) is to support these existing programs through its training and coordinating functions.  In the service of that goal, a Council of Community Outreach Coordinators has been established and is facilitated by PCEI staff.  This group consists of about a dozen people from various Wake Forest Baptist Health centers and institutes.  Members meet quarterly to share the activities of their respective programs and discuss ways to coordinate with other outreach organizations.