Community Engagement
The DC CTU is committed to engaging local stakeholders and those who may benefit from HIV prevention and treatment research. Through strategic partnerships with local community-based organizations, LGBTQ+ focused healthcare clinics, partnering research institutions, and local health departments, the DC CTU collaborates with a diverse range of local partners who believe in the mission of HIV research.
The DC CTU relies on input from its Community Advisory Boards (CAB). Each Clinical Research Site (CRS) has its own CAB, one for prevention and one for treatment and cure. In addition, the DC CTU has a cross-CTU CAB which convenes meetings and educational sessions that are of interest to HIV prevention, treatment, and cure researchers as well as those related to conditions under study within the CTU.
Local people with an interest in HIV research, participants or those wishing to participate in HIV research, advocates, members of groups highly affected by HIV, community-based organizers or stakeholders from local organizations are all welcome to participate in DC CTU CAB activities. For more information, please write to [email protected]
Quotes from our Community
In a recent CAB session, we asked participants why they joined the research CAB. Below are a few responses we would like to share.
"Because it's a unique opportunity to learn and discuss HIV research with people who have trial experiences. Where do you get that otherwise? You get to learn what’s going and talk about it with people are also living and working around it.”
“I wanted to know more about what was going on in the community as far as research. I learn more by listening and talking than by reading. I don’t always understand from reading. That’s the main reason I joined.”
"I wanted a voice for the transgender community, and I wanted the researchers to know that this not just a gay man’s disease. Everyone can get it. Everyone deserves to be treated fairly. And everyone deserves their own budget so research can be done equally. And pass the word out to my community so that we can get educated and not be forgotten.”
“It gives me hope and it always has. It’s not easy to find this information on the normal media. Being involved you get a sense of what’s going on and what’s coming. It helps facilitate hope for better days."
“There’s something very personable going on here. We actually check-in with each other.”
“I’m interested in this stuff, and I want to be able to communicate with people when they ask me questions. But it’s also okay to say that I don’t know.”