TY - JOUR AU - Epps, Fayron AU - Wiley, Zanthia AU - Teunis, Larissa J. AU - Johnson, Theodore M. II AU - Patzer, Rachel E. AU - Ofotokun, Igho AU - Franks, Nicole PY - 2021 TI - A Framework for Mobilizing Health Care to Respond to the Community Within the COVID-19 Pandemic T2 - Preventing Chronic Disease JO - Prev Chronic Dis SP - E30 VL - 18 CY - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia 30333, USA. N2 - Cultural mistrust of government with regard to health issues has pressed the need to engage trusted community leaders with influence and reach in disproportionately affected communities to ensure that essential public health activities related to COVID-19 occur among populations experiencing disproportionate impact from the pandemic. In April of 2020, a Georgia-based integrated academic health care system created a Community Outreach and Health Disparities Collaborative to unite trusted community leaders from faith-based, civic, and health-sector organizations to work with the health system and Emory University to develop tailored approaches and mobilize support within the context of the communities' cultural and individual needs to reduce the burden of COVID-19. We describe the framework used to join health care and academic collaborators with community partners to mobilize efforts to address the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic minority groups. The framework outlines a series of steps taken that led to a community-driven collaboration designed to engage local influential community leaders as partners in improving access to care for disproportionately affected communities, collaborations that could be replicated by other large health care systems. This framework can also be applied to other chronic diseases or future public health emergencies to improve communication, education, and health care access for communities experiencing disproportionate impact. SN - 1545-1151 UR - https://doi.org/10.5888/pcd18.200572 DO - 10.5888/pcd18.200572 ER -