NCI Announces New Program For Cancer Advocates

National Cancer Institute
Wednesday, 21 February 2001

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is now accepting applications from individuals interested in doing more in the fight against cancer. Consumer Advocates in Research and Related Activities (CARRA) is a new program to match cancer advocates with opportunities to help NCI in its mission to conduct and support cancer research, training, health information dissemination, and other programs.

Through CARRA, NCI invites cancer advocates to represent survivors' concerns, providing their ideas and viewpoints directly to NCI staff and supplying critical links between the advocacy communities and NCI. Once accepted into CARRA, an advocate may help develop and review cancer education pamphlets, videos or Web sites, participate in meetings about NCI research plans and policies, or evaluate patient-oriented studies at cancer research centers.

CARRA will recruit 150 consumer advocates to serve three-year terms at NCI. Advocates must be a cancer survivor; or family member or life partner; or people with three or more years of involvement in cancer-related activities (for example, support groups or hotline workers). Each individual selected for CARRA will participate in formal activities either from home or at the NCI campus in Bethesda, Md. NCI will also ask CARRA members to regularly provide their community's viewpoints on issues important to NCI.

NCI developed the CARRA program in consultation with consumer advocates and NCI staff, replacing the current, informal methods of advocate involvement with a clear and well-defined system. The new program supplies a fair and open process for involving consumer advocates in NCI activities.

Once selected, advocates will receive a general orientation about NCI. Both advocates and NCI staff will receive orientations regarding the roles and responsibilities of CARRA members. New CARRA members will be provided with mentors experienced with NCI's programs and the role of advocates. NCI will also provide additional advocate training tailored for each activity and compensation for necessary travel and expenses.

The CARRA program will support and enhance NCI staff's interactions with advocates. Edward Trimble, M.D., M.P.H., head of the surgery section for NCI's Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program, has worked with gynecologic cancer groups for several years. He explained, "Some cancers have prominent advocacy groups, such as breast, prostate, and ovarian, but other cancers are without advocacy groups. We would like to be able to better locate appropriate people to help us with our programs." The CARRA program will help NCI do this by matching advocates' skills and interests with NCI activity needs and appropriate opportunities. In turn, CARRA will also clarify the role of advocates and demonstrate their expertise in representing their constituency.

CARRA will also ensure that advocates represent a balanced demographic of ages, races, ethnicities, education levels, and geographic regions. To request a CARRA program application package:

Request an online application at http://liaison.cancer.gov/CARRA or
E-mail requests to liaison@od.nci.nih.gov, or
Call (301) 594-3194, or
Fax requests to (301) 480-7558, or
Mail requests to:
NCI Liaison Activities 6116 Executive Blvd., Suite 3068A, MSC 8324 Bethesda, MD 20892-8324

All applications must be postmarked by April 16, 2001. Information about the CARRA program at NCI is available at http://liaison.cancer.gov/CARRA .

For more information, or to contact National Cancer Institute, see their website at: www.cancer.gov