C4's Purpose Statement: Everyone deserves a life free from the burden of colorectal cancer (CRC). C4 is committed to ensuring that all Californians have the awareness, education, and access needed to prevent, detect, and treat this disease.
GOALS |
1. Lower the incidence and mortality rates of colorectal cancer in California. |
2. Increase colorectal cancer screening rates across California. |
3. Enhance public awareness of colorectal cancer prevention, risk reduction, and screening options. |
4. Ensure access to high quality and timely colorectal cancer screening and treatment. |
5. Promote health equity throughout the cancer care continuum. |
6. Strengthen colorectal cancer education for healthcare providers and health systems. |
7. Advocate for policy reforms to reduce the burden of colorectal cancer care. |
C4 is a statewide, 501-c(3) all-volunteer non-profit organization consisting of academic clinicians, Kaiser physicians, public health practitioners (nonprofits, regional and state health departments), CRC survivors and advocates, researchers, clinicians working for or with Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC), and a CA tribal nations representative. We are united in our mission to save lives and reduce suffering from colorectal cancer in all Californians with a strong focus on making it easier for patients to access the care they need in a timely fashion.
Specific Needs:
- Support for C4 Community Grants: Each increment of $15,000 supports one health system to focus on improving access to care for a year, beginning at education and screening, for colorectal cancer. Outcomes are typically related to improvements in screening rates as reported to the federal government. Efforts also promote improvements in stage of diagnosis that have better long term outcomes if cancer is present.
- Bringing the Screen Your Gut - Save Your Butt (SYGSYB) 5k to Sacramento: Our successful SYGSYB-San Diego is ready to expand to Sacramento to bring awareness and community outreach to the Sacramento region. Each race costs approximately $25,000 to host, with any proceeds raised beyond this being used in support of the C4 Community Grants program.
- Sacramento Regional Colorectal Cancer Roundtable: C4 in collaboration with the CA Department of Public Health/CA Dialogue on Cancer and the American Cancer Society hosted an annual roundtable that focused on regional best practices within the major health systems and community clinics in the 5-county region. Covid-19 disrupted these meetings but C4 wants to resurrect this roundtable in the odd years (the even years will focus on the Western CRC Consortium Conference - hosted in 2024 at UC Davis). The most recent roundtable was held in 2019 and drew 28 organizations from 5 counties to share best practices and challenges to access to CRC care. Approximate cost to host the roundtable is $5,000.
- C4 customized community outreach materials that are culturally and linguistically appropriate. In particular, the very concerning rise in early onset colorectal cancer cases, in particular for those under 45 and below the average risk starting screening age, suggest messaging to both community members and physicians caring for these patients needs to be improved so early warning signs are appropriately followed up. C4 has the expertise to develop the content but printing for outreach (patients and physicians) can be costly. Estimated cost: $10,000.
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Videographer: C4 is in the process of establishing a new Community Advisory Council composed of CRC patients, survivors, advocates, and caregivers to provide the community voice to the goals of C4. We want to capture their stories to better engage at the community level through video stories, given the size of CA and how many get their health information through video. Estimated cost: $25,000.
For those wanting a little more information about our C4 Community Grants:
The California Colorectal Cancer Coalition’s (C4) Community Grants program has served as a vital resource to CA FQHCs working to improve preventive care, also known as screening, related to colorectal cancer since its inception in 2013 through effective evidence-based interventions (EBI) at the community level. C4 has developed a model system, our C4 Community Grants program, that promotes linkage of community health partners to resources and specialty services that fall outside care provisions within FQHC. The aim is that these organizations can then provide the full spectrum of care to patients identified as needing secondary confirmatory colonoscopies and other care as needed for advanced lesions needing some type of surgery or oncology care. C4 has distributed over $740,000 to 81 health systems, primarily FQHCs, to provide resources for their efforts to improve access to the care continuum for CRC beginning with improving their screening rates and promoting best practices for timely delivery of care for those having abnormal tests by screening.