Neighborhood Community Advisory Boards (CAB) help garner support from stakeholders and develop relations with the communities (Dancy, Wilbur, Talashek, Bonner, & Barnes-Boyd, 2004; Quinn, 2004). Drawn from the target community, each CAB comprised members or leaders of neighborhood activist or tenant groups, lay church leaders, and local residents. Educating the members of the CAB about health disparities and the need for research in their communities was critical to gaining their trust and support for the study. This was accomplished by presentations outlining the direct benefits of participating in the HANDLS study at community association meetings. The CAB provided critical feedback on the conduct of the study, the acceptability of the study, and neighborhood-specific barriers to participation. In certain neighborhoods, forming a CAB duplicated existing neighborhood associations. Instead, we presented the study to the neighborhood association meeting, which served as the CAB for the neighborhood.
