The Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) team at the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute collaborates with community members and researchers across our catchment area – all 36 counties in Oregon – and aims to address issues related to cancer prevention, early detection and screening, and access to cancer care. We prioritize engagement with communities facing a disproportionate burden of cancer in Oregon. This may include, but is not limited to, communities and individuals experiencing marginalization and inequity due to geographic disparaties, racism, ableism, xenophobia, homophobia, and class oppression.

Support for Community Members

Grants and sponsorships

The Community Partnership Program funds the development of sustainable collaborations with Oregon communities to address community-identified cancer needs. Events sponsorships support community groups working to help cancer patients and their families, survivors, and researchers.

Community outreach

The Knight Mobile Outreach program teams up with local partners all across Oregon to provide resources to educate, prevent, detect and treat cancer. Knight School is a series of free presentations for the community, where you can learn about the Knight Cancer Institute's work to advance cancer prevention, detection, treatment and survivorship. 

Advocacy and education

The Knight Alliance for Patient-Centered Discovery unites advocates and community members to ensure cancer research is equitable, patient-centered, and impactful. Healthy Oregon Project aims to learn about the health of Oregonians in order to empower innovative research and close gaps in disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. The Knight Cancer Institute Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination (CRTEC) office provides education, training, and professional development opportunities for students, trainees, faculty and staff. 

Support for Researchers

Project planning and grant proposals

The Knight Alliance for Patient-Centered Discovery connects researchers with community and patient advocates to collaborate on grant applications, lay abstracts, clinical trial design, and the results dissemination to ensure studies are accessible, meaningful, and patient-informed. Healthy Oregon Project is a secure repository that stores human specimens along with associated data for use in authorized future research studies. Access to this repository is carefully controlled to ensure it is only used by qualified scientists engaged in legitimate research.

Project implementation

Research in Oregon Communities' Review System (ROCRS) convenes community advisory committees across Oregon to assess researchers' project design, responsiveness and success. Qualitative Research Methods help to understand people's perspectives, emotions, experiences, and behaviors associated with your study topic.