Behavioral/Social Sciences &Community Outreach Core (BSSCOC)

The Behavioral/Social Sciences and Community Outreach (BSSCO) Core will offer resources and staff to: (1) promote active involvement with South Florida community representatives and organizations in the UM D-CFAR; (2) provide D-CFAR investigators with consultation and resources that will aid them in developing and implementing procedures to enhance recruitment and retention of community- and clinic-based study participants;and (3) expand the ability of behavioral and social scientists to collaborate with clinical and laboratory scientists. In this D-CFAR application, the BSSCO Core will focus on specific areas that will further enhance the quality of behavioral/social science HIV/AIDS research at UM and also look to stimulate the development of new HIV investigators, research initiatives and collaborations among the behavioral/social scientists, clinical scientists and laboratory scientists. A special emphasis of this core will be to assist D-CFAR investigators in developing and maintaining meaningful community partnerships. Our three aims represent areas for improvement that have been identified in our needs assessments and in critiques from our previously submitted CFAR applications.