Community Outreach and Engagement in Tallahassee
Meet our new community health resource coordinator
Community Outreach and Engagement Office
The UF Health Cancer Center is proud to be a part of a community that moves cancer care and research forward. It is this community that helps shape and guide our mission — to prevent, detect and treat cancer — and brings new therapies to patients through philanthropic investments.
The overarching goal of the UF Health Cancer Center’s Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) office is to partner with community members, patients, families, clinicians, health system leaders, policymakers and Cancer Center scientists to reduce the cancer burden in the 22 counties we serve through novel outreach and engagement programs that span the cancer care continuum — from prevention to survivorship.
COE has four specific aims: 1) to assess and monitor the cancer-relevant burden in our 22-county catchment area, 2) to enhance the impact of UFHCC research by facilitating relationships between researchers, stakeholders and community members, 3) to engage the community in adopting evidence-based strategies, and 4) to develop and advocate for policy change.
Meet Our New Community Health Resource Coordinator
LaTrina Massey, M.P.H.
LaTrina Massey, M.P.H., is the new community health resource coordinator at the University of Florida Health Cancer Center and is located in Tallahassee at the Bond Community Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center.
Massey received her bachelor’s and master’s degree in public health from Florida A&M University and was a community health worker (CHW) in Tallahassee. As a CHW, she spent much of her time providing health education, care coordination and navigation, and addressing social determinants of health to close health gaps. Massey also has experience with social and clinical research studies after her work with the United States Army at Fort Benning, Georgia. She has worked alongside research professionals, military leadership, stakeholders, policy makers and community members.
What are Federally Qualified Health Centers?
Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) are located throughout our 22-county catchment area, and are designed to provide needed care to marginalized populations in underserved areas. FQHCs are community-based, comprehensive health care providers that offer primary and preventive services, dental care, mental health and substance abuse services, as well as specialty care and programs to address social and structural determinants of health. They qualify for federal funding and have ongoing quality assurance programs.
Bond Community Health Center
Bond Community Health Center (CHC), located in Tallahassee, Florida, has been a 501(c)(3) FQHC for over thirty years. It provides patient-centered approaches to primary and preventive health care for residents of Leon, Gadsden, Wakulla, Jefferson, Taylor, Franklin, Liberty and Madison counties. Their mission is to provide access to high-quality health services with a particular concern for lower socioeconomic groups, regardless of their ability to pay. A wide range of services are offered including eligibility assistance, transportation, healthy eating skills, dentistry, gynecology, pharmacy and pediatric care. To expand their reach, Bond CHC has a mobile clinic that provides services at community events and other locations in their service area.
Temple Robinson, M.D., CEO of Bond CHC, is a dedicated partner with UF Health and the UF Health Cancer Center. This partnership has grown with the addition of our new community health resource coordinator, LaTrina Massey, M.P.H., who will be hosted at Bond CHC as she works to impact cancer health outcomes in the Big Bend region of Florida.
Advocacy Days at the Florida Capital
Advocacy Days at the Capitol took place February 3-5 in Tallahassee, Florida, with the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation (FBCF), an organization founded by three Miami women in 1993. Their purpose is to ‘improve the lives of those in Florida with breast cancer and give hope where there is none.’ This three-day event allowed the breast cancer community an opportunity to engage with state legislators about issues related to screening and treating breast cancer. The FBCF members are a group of advocates, survivors and family members, who shared their personal stories and experiences on the impact breast cancer on their lives.
“I was able to observe how the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation broke into groups across the Senate and House corridors to engage politicians regarding bills on the cost for cancer medication and diagnostic imaging, as well as funding for the Mary Brogan Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program,” Massey said. “Policy work is an important component of what the COE office aims to do within our catchment area and in the entire state of Florida.”