Community Working Group

The Community Working Group (CWG) will be led by facilitators Sherri Karas Certo of Pitt and Bob Bucklew of CWRU.  Representatives of the Community Advisory Groups (CABs) related to HIV research across Pitt and CWRU are represented within the CWG.

Broad community outreach will be achieved through engagement with city and county Public Health departments as well as local initiatives such as AIDS Free Pittsburgh and the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland.  Embodied by cornerstone principles of partnership, equity, accountability, and ownership, shared governance provides community advisory groups with formal engagement to prioritize research topics within the CFAR.  In marginalized, under-researched key populations, such as Black MSM and trans communities, community members are better placed than researchers to identify and relay emerging health risks and barriers to care and to serve as knowledge translators, informing the communities they represent of research results and implications.

Studies are also presented to the unified Community Working Group (CWG) that provides insights regarding scientific merits, responsiveness to community needs, safety concerns, and anticipated patient/subject interest.