The QuickStart Program

The California Breast Cancer Research Program, the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA), and the Women of Color Breast Cancer Survivors' Support Project offer the QuickStart program on a regular basis. QuickStart is an innovative three-month program that supports community-academic teams in conducting community-partnered participatory research (CPPR) related to breast cancer. This is a rare opportunity to get technical assistance directly from potential funders on a research proposal that you develop over the course of the program. Participants will be able to build their partnership and workshop a research idea through in-person and online sessions, written assignments, and a mock review of a draft grant proposal. QuickStart participants have a competitive edge when submitting research proposals.  

Participants who complete all elements of the program will receive written and verbal feedback from an expert review committee on a draft application in time to revise and apply for the Community Research Collaboration awards (CBCRP) as well as other funders.

Watch the video below to learn more about QuickStart.

QUICKSTART 2025: APPLICATION AVAILABLE NOW

The QuickStart program will include online sessions, face-to-face sessions, technical assistance calls, draft grant proposal, and a mock review of draft grant proposals. The program will be offered from April 2025 through January 2026, with a mock review of applications in January 2026.

We are encouraging both newly forming and established community-academic research teams to apply. If you are an individual community representative or academic interested in the program but do not yet have a partner, please apply by our early deadline of January 17, 2025 and our team will provide you with support in finding potential partners. The team application deadline is March 13, 2025.

Priority is given to people based in California. However, individuals and teams outside of California will be considered as space allows. QuickStart is offered free of charge and includes tuition, overnight accommodations for out-of-town participants (if there are in-person meetings), all meals during in-person sessions, and transportation for all participants in California. Please see the call for application for full details. At any point, you can send questions to us at QuickStartTP@gmail.com.

Download the QuickStart Call for Applications

Download the QuickStart fillable application for teams or individuals 

At the end of QuickStart CPPR teams will have:

• Experience working with their potential research partner.
• Partnership agreements that can strengthen a research proposal.
• A completed draft proposal.
• Witnessed an expert review of their draft proposal. Teams will be prepared to submit a proposal to California Breast Cancer Research Program’s Community Research Collaborations (CRC) award program and other funding sources.

Benefits of QuickStart:

• Academics can improve chances of funding by showing strong stakeholder support, maximize the translation and dissemination potential of their research and improve the chances of contributing to changes in policy and practices.
• Community members will build their organization’s capacity, improve credibility for their work, develop new skills, access a new funding stream and have data to support changes in policies or practices.
• All participants broaden their knowledge of the connection between breast cancer, environmental exposures and health disparities.

Who is eligible to apply?

All teams must:

• be interested in breast cancer; including disparities, environmental causes, or prevention 
• be able to participate in all face-to-face and online sessions,
• have access to computers throughout the entire program,
• be interested in conducting research, including submitting grant proposals for research funding,
• agree to submit a draft concert proposal for review, and
• be willing to participate fully in the program, including sharing research ideas, plans, and draft plans with program staff, teachers, and other participants.

Time commitment:

• A series of presentations delivered via four days of in-person meetings. (~46-50 hours total). 
• Online weekly assignments and occasional webinars. Assignments include literature reviews, developing draft research questions, grant writing, participating in educational webinars and others. (Approximately 10 hours of educational sessions plus written assignments)
• Up to four technical assistance calls to give teams feedback on potential research questions, methodologies, partnership development, concept papers, and (optional) grant application. (up to 4 hours)

When will the program take place? QuickStart activities will take place between April 2025 and January 2026. See table below for key activities and dates.

QuickStart Key Activities & Dates

register for an upcoming Informational webinar meeting 

We look forward to meeting you this year. During our webinars we will provide information on the QuickStart program, the application process, program activities, and the technical support we offer for finding a partner. We will have dedicated time for questions and discussion.

We will hold informational webinars on several dates:

qUICKSTART webinar registration link

Testimonials from past participants

In 2012, CBCRP, Commonweal and Plumbline offered the CRIBS training, which serves as the foundation for the QuickStart training. We covered similar content and had the same goals, though the training was spread out over five months. Here is what some of our past participants have to say about their experience.

Being an experienced CBPR investigator, I went into the training with the expectation that I would get to know a new community partner, but I did not expect that I would learn a lot of new information on CBPR. I must say, I derived much more benefit from the training than I expected. The academic presentations were excellent. The face to face meetings helped me to gain a much better understanding of the point of view of my community partners and established a level of trust and understanding that has helped our collaboration tremendously. The group sessions helped us to think through critical content of our proposal and the team-specific phone consultations with experienced staff and investigators from CBCRP, the Commonweal and Plumbline Coaching helped us to refine our specific aims and to write a winning proposal. The mock review was of special value for my community partners, who had never experienced the review process. We are now looking forward to get started with a pilot study that our team received after the completion of the training, that will assess benzene in the outdoor area and promote environmental justice in Wilmington, California. Overall, the training provided an excellent combination of scientific content and team building exercises– two necessary components to stimulating CBPR research.
-Annette Maxwell, Dr.P.H., Professor, UCLA, Center for Cancer Prevention and Control Research, Fielding School of Public Health and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center

The CRIBS training was an invaluable and career-changing experience for me as it brought the value of what I do on a daily basis to another level. By pairing me with a researcher, and fostering a working relationship based on common goals, my work is now put into a larger global context. I assist Latinas in my community, an underserved population, which is rewarding and inspiring work that I enjoy. And now, we are able to effectively gather participants for a study that will add to a body of literature where previously there was a scarcity. The project has seemed to go seamlessly, and I have especially enjoyed working with my research partner who adds a dimension to my work that I find encouraging. The participants, board members, coworkers, and community seem to be as excited as we are. I think that means we are on the right track!
-Carla Gomez, LCSW, Outreach Coordinator, “Campaña de Senos Saludables,” Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Santa Cruz

I was a participant in the inaugural CRIBS training. The CBCRP, Commonweal and Plumbline designed and implemented an excellent training on CBPR and our team learned a lot about creating and sustaining teams, the latest science in the environment, disparities and breast cancer and writing grant applications. I am excited to share our team was one of the groups that received an award to conduct a pilot study. Without the intense hands on training it is highly unlikely we would have created such an outstanding proposal. Based on the reviewer's scores and feedback our group reviewed the highest score and the comments are very favorable. Our team the Inland Empire African American Wellness Collaborative (IEAAWC) will conduct an 18 month study “Is the Cost of Beauty Putting Black Women at Risk”, The IEAAWC Hair and Health Study. Since African American /Black (AA/B) women use hair products such as relaxers at higher rates, use products that contain more hormones and placenta than white women, and may begin a lifelong hair regimen of straightening product use as toddlers, it has been suggested that some of the observed Breast Cancer (BC) risk in AA/B women may be related to their exposure to these products. The goal for our pilot study is to explore the potential role of hair product use in BC etiology in local AA/B women. The training I received in the CRIBS program is priceless and prepared me to help create a proposal that got funded.
-Phyllis Y. Clark, CEO, Healthy Heritage Movement

We had the great honor of being selected to participate in the first CRIBS training program... Through this program, we established a new partnership with epidemiologists at Cancer Prevention Institute of California and UNR, who joined us in the CRIBS trainings. The project that emerged from this partnership, a first-ever human health study in the Sierra foothills examining exposure to mining contaminants of women residing in a gold mining-impacted community, was subsequently funded by California Breast Cancer Research Program and is now in progress.

CRIBS provided a remarkable opportunity to become immersed in the emerging field of community-based participatory research as well as the latest in breast cancer research. With presentations by a wide range of experts, and an extraordinary level of individual coaching and mentorship, we were able to acquire the skills and confidence to undertake scientific research as equal partners. As a community-based non-profit watershed science organization, we were able to bring to the partnership our many years of environmental data and our intimate knowledge of our community and its concerns. Our project was the first ever CBCRP-funded project to be led by the community partner. The resulting project has the potential to add considerably to the existing body of knowledge regarding human health impacts from historic mining, and would not have been possible without the wealth of resources and networking opportunities provided by CRIBS.

We should add that we were thoroughly spoiled with wonderful hospitality, great food, much laughter, and a warmly supportive atmosphere. We recommend this program in the strongest terms as an opportunity not to be missed for any community organization looking to contribute their expertise to the field of breast cancer research.
-Joanne Hild and Jane Sellen, Sierra Streams Institute

QuickStart is collaboratively led by team members from the California Breast Cancer Research Program, Women of Color Breast Cancer Survivors’ Support Project, and the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Alliance (OCAPICA).