Marginalized communities have a documented distrust of research grounded in negative portrayals in the academic literature. Yet, trusted partnerships, the foundation for Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR), require time to build the capacity for joint decision-making, equitable involvement of academically trained and community investigators, and co-learning. Trust can be difficult to develop within the short time between a funding opportunity announcement and application submission. Resources to support community- and academic-based investigators’ time to discuss contexts, concerns, integration of expertise and locally acceptable research designs and data collection are limited. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded Center for American Indian Resilience and the Southwest Health Equity Research Collaborative have implemented an internal funding mechanism to support community and academic-based investigators’ travel cost and time to discuss complementary areas of interest and skills and to decide if moving forward with a partnership and a collaborative grant proposal would be beneficial to the community. The rationale and administration of this Community-Campus Partnership Support (CCPS) Program are described and four examples of supported efforts are provided. Centers and training programs frequently fund pilot grants to support junior investigators and/or exploratory research. This CCPS mechanism should be considered as precursor to pilot work, to stimulate partnership building without the pressure of an approaching grant application deadline.

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is one of the most common bacterial stomach infections and is implicated in a majority of non-cardia gastric cancer. While gastric cancer has decreased in the United States (US), the incidence in the Navajo Nation is nearly four times higher than surrounding Non-Hispanic White populations. Little is known about H. pylori prevalence in this population or other Indigenous communities in the lower 48 states. In this cross-sectional study, 101 adults representing 73 households from three Navajo Nation chapter communities completed surveys and a urea breath test for active H. pylori. Accounting for intrahousehold correlation, H. pylori prevalence was 56.4% (95% CI, 45.4–66.8) and 72% of households had at least one infected person. The odds of having an active infection in households using unregulated water were 8.85 (95% CI, 1.50–53.38) that of the use of regulated water, and males had 3.26 (95% CI, 1.05–10.07) higher odds than female. The prevalence of H. pylori in Navajo is similar to that seen in Alaska Natives. Further investigation into factors associated with prevention of infection is needed as well as understanding barriers to screening and treatment.

The Gold King Mine Spill (Spill) occurred in August 2015 upstream from Silverton, Colorado and released three million gallons of contaminated water into the Animas River, a tributary to the San Juan River that flows across the Navajo Nation. Using principles of community-engaged research, the Gold King Mine Spill Diné Exposure Project co-developed a culturally anchored approach to conduct focus groups and analyze narratives collected in three Diné (Navajo) communities along the San Juan River within 9 months of the Spill. Focus group questions were designed to document the socio-cultural impacts of the Spill. This paper: (1) outlines the partnerships and approvals; (2) describes focus group design, training, data collection and analysis; and (3) reflects on the use of a culturally anchored approach in Indigenous, specifically Diné-centered research. Diné social and cultural etiquette and concepts of relationality were used to adapt standard (non-Indigenous) qualitative methods. Findings describe community perceptions of short-term impacts of the disaster, as well as past and present injustices, communication related to the Spill, and concerns of persistent threats to Diné lifeways. The culturally anchored approach was critical in fostering trust with Diné participants and aligned with the candor of the discussions.

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