Specific Aims of Community Outreach and Engagement

1
 Surveillance: Define the cancer burden on Long Island (LI) and perform ongoing monitoring and dissemination of this information to Stony Brook Cancer Center scientists, clinicians and community-based stakeholders.
2
 Prevention Education and Screening: Provide evidence-based cancer control, education and screening services to the LI community to reduce the overall cancer burden and disparities among specific communities and engage community members and organizations on LI in this process. 
3
 Engagement: Engage in bi-directional communication with stakeholder groups to inform, develop and implement policies and programs for prevention, early detection and treatment to reduce cancer morbidity and mortality on LI; to inform cancer research; and to disseminate evidence-based findings.
4
 Catalyzing Research: Catalyze expanded novel and high-impact cancer research across basic, translational, clinical and population science, to address LI’s cancer-specific burden and reduce cancer disparities.

Stony Brook Cancer Center's Catchment Area: Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island

The SBCC is located on Long Island (LI) in Suffolk County, NY, which is a densely populated island approximately 118 miles long and 23 miles wide. While geographically the island has a total population of approximately 7.8 million people, locals refer to Long Island as solely consisting of Suffolk and Nassau counties, excluding the two New York City boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. These two boroughs are physically located on the western tip of the island and administratively are part of NY City (Manhattan) and are distinct from the two Long Island counties. Travel times from areas within Nassau and Suffolk to Manhattan frequently exceed three hours due to lengthy distances to the eastern parts of the island and very heavy traffic congestion on the western part of the island. Moreover, Suffolk and Nassau counties are more suburban and even agricultural (eastern part) compared to the highly urban NY City. This geographical layout lends itself to the convenient location of SBCC for the approximately three million residents of Nassau and Suffolk Counties, particularly, Suffolk. 

LI map of catchment area