The REACH (Research Expansion Advancing Community Health) project was a new collaboration at UCSF with two primary goals, both of which centered around equity: to improve representation of all San Francisco communities in clinical datasets, and to build research capacity among UCSF investigators in need of more experience in community-based settings. REACH was designed to be a shared use van among UCSF researchers, but the team leading the project wanted to ensure it would be used equitably, for the benefit of the community.
Facente Consulting facilitated multiple brainstorming meetings with the client over the course of five months to develop a framework for turning the REACH van from an idea to a reality. Final deliverables included a planning document organized by project area (e.g., outreach, application review, and evaluation); several key document templates (e.g., researcher code of conduct, researcher participation commitment form); an equity framework visual with key equity-related questions for each step of the process; and a sample pitch to communicate the project’s value to potential funders.