“I’ve been waiting 30 years for a guide like this”

Andria Reyes, M.A., manages health education for the Community Outreach and Engagement Program within the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC). Her work focuses on delivering culturally relevant health promotion and disease prevention expertise, a suite of health education workshops in English and Spanish, and document translation services to the Columbia community. In the thirty years that she has worked at Columbia University Medical Center (CUIMC), she has partnered with multiple internal offices and external community organizations to better facilitate bi-directional collaboration.

When asked about the new Guide for Creating Research Recruitment Flyers, she replied, “I found the guide to not only be necessary, but of paramount importance. I have been waiting 30 years for a guide like this. I wholeheartedly commend the section dedicated to non-stigmatizing language and preferred terminology for specific population groups and communities. This has been a longstanding challenge.”

The guide provides the essential components for creating easy-to understand, and culturally relevant study flyers. It was designed by the Community Engagement workgroup, within the DE&I Committee at the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. The collaborative workgroup saw the need and benefit of offering this guidance to research teams in order to improve outreach and most importantly, support trust building with the community.

Recruitment flyers are an indispensable outreach tool for participant recruitment. They need to consider the perspective of the intended community, use culturally appropriate language, and visual literacy for best practice. The language used on the flyer can either encourage or discourage participation among diverse communities. Racial and economic disparities create significant health risks to our nation as a whole and underrepresented populations have historically been forgotten, or not accessible, in clinical trials that shape important health outcomes. Increasing diversity of participants in research is critical for equitable care. These flyers serve as a direct link to the community and thus need to support trust building so diverse populations feel safe, empowered, and appropriately represented in studies at CUIMC.

The guide is offered through the Recruitment & Retention Initiative at the Irving Institute.