Community Conversations – Bangor, ME

The report below summarizes key insights and outcomes from the Bangor Community Conversation. This conversation aimed to gather perspectives from individual community members on barriers and opportunities for integrating meaningful community engagement into clinical research. The findings may be used to inform the ENGAGE Working Group and future efforts related to community engagement.

Bangor Community Report

The above figure was shared with attendees to get individual perspectives on the ease of understanding and usability of this potential public engagement model.  NIH invites all interested individuals to provide their thoughts on this model.  If you would like to add your voice to the conversation, please email your thoughts to [email protected].

Twenty-seven community members took part in the Bangor community conversation, held at the Bangor Public Library. Individual community members emphasized the importance of making research participation accessible, both in terms of the understandability of research information and in being able to physically access and participate in research activities. They also highlighted the importance of providing educational opportunities to communities so that they can be better informed about research priorities. Additionally, individuals stressed the value of explaining the “why” of research so that they understand that their participation is valued. 

The illustration above is a graphical summary of comments from the attendees of the Bangor community conversation.