Track 2 Community Engagement Brief Guidelines Menu

Community Engagement Brief Guidelines

These guidelines are intended for recipients of the Track 2 Continuation Award: Community Engagement and the Application of Public Health Research.

Overview

Track 2 Awardees will submit a 1,500-word Public Health Community Engagement Brief that will be published on the Natural Hazards Center's website. Your brief should concisely describe your outreach project, including the initial research findings that motivated it, the community partners or other stakeholders you worked with, the design and logic of project activities, and any measured outcomes. Additionally, your brief should feature your reflections on the strengths and weaknesses of your engagement approach and outline any lessons that your team learned during the project.

Brief Due Date

The Community Engagement Briefs are due no later than April 5, 2024. This is a hard deadline, so please plan accordingly. Submit your brief as a Word document (with photos submitted as separate JPG or PNG files) to the Natural Hazards Center at  haz.research.awards@colorado.edu. Please do not submit your brief before reading the submission guidelines in full.

Style Guide

Before you start writing, please review our Natural Hazards Center Publication Style Guide. The style guide answers frequently asked questions about our writing style and explains how to format tables, figures, block quotes, appendices, and more. Briefs that do not follow the style guide will be returned to the author for further revision.

Template

Download the Project Template below and save it as a Word document. The template has pre-formatted headings and instructions that will help you create your brief. Scroll to the end of the document for a checklist of all our style requirements. Please review this checklist prior to submitting your final brief to ensure it complies with our guidelines.

Download Track 2 Continuation Award Community Engagement Brief Template and Checklist here.

Public Health Tool or Application

Your brief is required to include at least one public health tool or application developed during your community engagement activities (e.g., a training manual, webinar video, or website disseminating findings). The tool or application will be incorporated into your online brief and shared publicly on the Natural Hazards Center website. See examples of public health tools or applications by clicking on briefs listed here. Your team is welcome to include more than one tool or application, if you feel it is appropriate.

Project Photos and Other Multimedia

We strongly encourage you to submit photos, images, videos, or other multimedia depicting your project. Such items will help illustrate the value of engaging with community partners while also making your online brief more visually appealing. If your photos or videos include identifiable images of project participants, you must obtain their permission to share their image online.

For guidance on taking photos, please read this list of tips on Photography Basics for Researchers from the CONVERGE Extreme Events Research Check Sheets. You may submit up to 10 photos or images depicting your project site or activities. Due to space limitations, we may not be able to include all submissions. All photos or images should be attached as separate image files, such as JPG or PNG, and not embedded in the Word document.

If you would like to incorporate other types of multimedia in your brief, please review the CONVERGE check sheets on Multimedia for Researchers: Techniques and Ethics and Videography Basics for Researchers. Please contact haz.research.awards@colorado.edu for information on how to submit multimedia items.

Peer Review Process and Final Submission

If your brief adheres to the guidelines, it will then enter the review and copyediting process. The list below describes the steps in this process and important dates.

  • Peer Review. Two reviewers will read your brief and provide you with detailed written comments and recommendations by April 30, 2024.
  • Revised Brief. You will be asked to revise your brief in response to reviewer comments and submit a revised version by May 24, 2024.
  • Copyediting. The Natural Hazards Center staff will copyedit the revised draft and provide additional comments and revisions by June 14, 2024.
  • Final Brief. You will review the copyedited brief, approve and make requested changes, and submit a final draft by June 28, 2024.
  • Publication. The Natural Hazards Center staff will then work to publish your brief online with any photos, images, or multimedia items that are included in your submission. It will be published on our website by August 1, 2024.

Author Bios

Prior to submitting your final brief, please make sure all authors submit a biography, photo, and current email address using this online form.

Questions?

If you have any questions, please contact the Natural Hazards Center team at haz.research.awards@colorado.edu.

Acknowledgements

The Public Health Disaster Research Award Program is based on work supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through supplemental funding to the National Science Foundation (NSF Award #1635593). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CDC, NSF, or Natural Hazards Center.