Abstract B050: Establishing and evaluating a community advisory group in eastern rural maryland: A model for community-engaged cancer outreach

Abstract Introduction: The Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) program at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center (SKCCC) at Johns Hopkins University aims to build partnerships with community members and organizations to understand local needs, address concerns, and promote the adoption of evidence-based cancer control strategies. Through bidirectional engagement, the program seeks to reduce the cancer burden in its defined catchment area, which is the entire state of Maryland. Methods: The SKCCC COE program oversees two long-standing Community Advisory Groups (CAGs) in Baltimore and Prince George’s County, which have both existed for over 15 years. These CAGs are monthly, 90 minute Zoom meetings (hosted from September to June each year) with guest speakers ranging from SKCCC educators and researchers to various local speakers. In January 2025, a new CAG was launched on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. To evaluate the effectiveness of CAG meetings, satisfaction and engagement surveys were distributed to attendees across all three CAGs over a 10-month period (May 2024–April 2025). Surveys assessed meeting satisfaction, participant engagement, and topic relevance using a Likert scale (1 = low and 5 = high). Baltimore County, Prince George’s County, and the Eastern Shore (which is made up of 9 counties along the Chesapeake Bay) are 3 areas of Maryland with differing population density. Baltimore County has a population density of 1408 people/sq mi and Prince George’s County has 1963 people/sq mi, while the Eastern Shore region has only about 144 people/sq mi. Results: A total of 175 survey responses were received: 83 from Baltimore, 68 from Prince George’s County, and 24 from the newly formed Eastern Shore CAG (launched January 2025). All groups reported high satisfaction with the meetings (Baltimore = 4.7, Prince George’s = 4.8, Eastern Shore = 4.7), strong ability to ask questions (4.6, 4.8, 4.6, respectively), and high relatability to topics presented (4.7, 4.9, 4.7, respectively). Across CAGs, participants most frequently requested future discussions on survivorship, healthy living and eating, and cancer caregiving. Conclusions: The Eastern Shore CAG demonstrated community engagement levels comparable to the long-established groups, indicating successful integration into SKCCC’s COE efforts. Based on these positive outcomes, SKCCC plans to expand its outreach by launching a new CAG in Western Maryland, a rural region also within the SKCCC’s defined catchment area. Citation Format: Janvi Srivastava, Sheryl G.A. Gabram, Jalecia King, Germinal I. Destine, Otis W. Brawley. Establishing and evaluating a community advisory group in eastern rural maryland: A model for community-engaged cancer outreach [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 18th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities; 2025 Sep 18-21; Baltimore, MD. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2025;34(9 Suppl):Abstract nr B050.