Community Engagement & Scholarship Core

The Community Engagement & Scholarship (CES) Core focuses on assuring that social drivers of health risk for all persons are acknowledged and addressed in the Center’s activities and research.

The CES Core will also recruit and maintain a Community Advisory Board. This board will include community members, patients with chronic illness, community advocates and leaders who will advise on Center activities, and serve as advisors to members of CRISP engaged in research.

Goals:

• Collaborate as advisors in the conceptualization, design, conduct and analysis of CRISP research.
• Secure funding for and engage CRISP members in the conduct of research and dissemination of manuscripts on the impact of society on all persons to prevent and self-manage chronic conditions.
• With Research & Scholarship Core obtain funding, engage members and recruit speakers for future courses for health professionals, community members, and students on community involved and engaged research.

CRISP SYMPOSIUM 2026

On April 27, 2026, the Center for Chronic Illness Self-management & Prevention (CRISP) hosted its 2nd Annual Symposium, “Implications of Food & Financial Insecurity in Chronic Illness” at the Truhlsen Campus Events Center, Omaha with support from the UNMC Continuing interprofessional Development and Innovation team. The symposium brought together approximately 60 community members, faculty, clinicians, students, and representatives from local community resources for an engaging event focused on access to healthy food and financial stability as challenges in preventing chronic illness.

Keynote speaker Shawna Forsberg, President & CEO of the United Way of the Midlands, presented “Signals and Trends: Responding Together with a Circle of Support,” providing critical insights into the nature and magnitude of the food, financial, and other challenges experience by citizen within the Omaha-Council Bluffs metro area. Among other United Way resources, she highlighted data about the “211” helpline a resource for navigating available resources to people with a variety of social needs.