Module 1: Find Power in Partnerships

Opportunities for strategic partnerships also exist with additional organizations, particularly those that bring the capacity to help design and advance intervention strategies. Other partners to consider engaging include, for example:

1. State environmental justice offices
2. Environmental regulatory agencies, such as those responsible for air and water quality
3. Sustainability departments within businesses, universities, and government agencies
4. Environmental advocacy and occupational safety and health advocacy organizations
5. Other research institutions with expertise in environmental and occupational health and other aligned fields
6. Unions/organized labor

The Resources section for Module 2 outlines a range of content matter experts as well as those with deep knowledge about communities impacted by environmental/occupational cancer risks to consider engaging.

Engaging in non-traditional partnerships is crucial for cancer coalitions to expand capacity and address environmental/occupational cancer risks. Many diseases share the same risk factors. For example, many chemicals that are associated with asthma (such as formaldehyde or fine particulate air pollution) are also risk factors for lung cancer. The more we can align resources across chronic disease programs within state health departments, the more capacity there will be to advance specific strategies. Other government agencies, including environmental protection agencies, environmental justice offices, economic development, and transportation offices, each have programs and policies that can be leveraged to support cancer risk reduction efforts. Prioritizing long-term or task-specific engagement with traditional and non-traditional partners around goal setting, cancer risk reduction strategy development, and implementation processes will strengthen the coalition’s capacity to effectively address environmental and occupational risk factors.

Take the example of partners that are relevant to air pollution in “Centerville County”—a fictional county that could be in any one of our 50 states. These stakeholders include traditional partners already active within your cancer coalition, such as health professionals, universities, and advocacy/community-based organizations and researchers. However, given the tendency for health and environmental programs to be siloed one from the other, the individuals from these sectors active in your coalition may not have expertise in air pollution, and air pollution leaders may not connect their work to cancer prevention. Tapping new participants from institutions that are long-time partners can build capacity for addressing air pollution in the coalition.

It is also important to consider non-traditional cancer coalition partners such as leaders of asthma programs within state health departments or transportation and economic development agencies. Air pollution is a shared risk factor for asthma and cancer. Thus, capacities developed for asthma programs can be leveraged to support cancer risk reduction opportunities. Government offices such as transportation and economic development are key potential partners in air pollution risk reduction solutions: technological, policy, and programmatic frameworks. Although the example below focuses on air pollution, it is meant to be a model for thinking through relevant stakeholders for the broader environmental and occupational cancer risks of interest to the coalition.