Goals and focus

Increase awareness of cancers in Washington state, risk factors, and prevention measures.

Monitor barriers to screening and prevention and assemble resources available to support communities with access to care.

Reduce Health Related Social Needs (HRSN) in screening and follow-up.

Collaborate with other working groups, especially the Screening group.

Who should join?

Anyone who is in interested in or works on cancer prevention and early detection in Washington state. This includes:

·       Healthcare and public health professionals

·       Researchers

·       Community health workers

·       Patient navigators

·       Representatives from community-based organizations

·       Health districts

·       Patients and cancer survivors

Goals and focus

The screening working group meets monthly and focuses on actions and coordination to promote and track cancer screening, which are goals incorporated throughout the Cancer Plan. Our goals include:

Identify screening best practices for each cancer type with early detection and incorporate recommendations for those best practices into the Cancer Plan.

Investigate barriers to screening across Washington state, looking at both system limitations and informational barriers on the part of both patients and providers.

Recommend a set of realistic strategies to overcome those barriers and extend the benefits of cancer screening as broadly as possible to reduce cancer deaths.

Include the experience and voices of others across the state as we expand our working group and network.

Who should join?

Anyone who is interested in or works on cancer screening in Washington state. This includes people with personal experience with one or more of the screenable cancers, clinicians, healthcare professionals, researchers, public health professionals and advocates working in cancer screening and prevention.

Goals and focus

Improve access to survivorship care, resources, and support services.

Address long term health and quality-of-life challenges for cancer survivors.

Foster collaboration among healthcare providers, care givers, community organizations, and others to enhance survivorship outcomes.

Who should join?

Anyone who is interested in cancer survivorship in Washington state. This includes cancer survivors and caregivers, Healthcare professionals, patient support organizations, researchers, public health professionals and advocates working in cancer survivorship care and long-term health outcomes.

Goals and focus

The Clinical Trials working group meets monthly to support the development of the Cancer Plan with an emphasis on the inclusion of clinical trials and associated governance to address cancer rates in Washington. 

Who should join?

Anyone who has an interest in or works in clinical trials, research governance and design, health equity in clinical research, and best practices. We especially welcome people who have participated in clinical trials in the past, or wanted to and had barriers to participation.

Goals and focus

Identifying and bridging equity gaps within gender, race, ethnicity, insurance status, culture, and other social determinants by rural and urban communities

Goal is to alleviate barriers to care, thereby increasing access to care, health screenings and preventative care in underrepresented populations through health literacy and collaboration with other groups. 

Who should join?

Organizations whose focus is on health of underrepresented communities throughout the lifespan

Community service organizations where public health is a pillar of their focus (Thinking about a Rotary district who approached me about working with access to care issues) on goes here

Goals and focus

The communications working group meets monthly to support the communications and materials needed for the broader CAPOW coalition. This includes development, review and approval of the newsletter, promotional materials, website updates, the dissemination of reports and other coalition information and materials.

Who should join?

This is a great working group for those who have social media experience, are familiar with graphic design, surveys, reports, website updates, or other coalition communications.

Goals and focus

The advocacy and government relations working group meets monthly to support the development of a future advocacy plan for the Cancer Plan to be used to educate the Washington State Legislature. We focus on monitoring potential federal policy impacts on the work of CAPOW and the implementation of the 2025-2030 Plan. 

Who should join?

This workgroup is great for those who have an interest in civic engagement, and who might be familiar with government relations and advocacy, have experience with federal, state, or local government, or are looking to learn! Participants should confirm that they are able to interact with legislators, as some professional roles prohibit that activity.

Stay tuned as this workgroup gets set up!