AOTF Engage Summit: A Recap of a Groundbreaking Event

We are thrilled to share the success of the first-ever AOTF Engage Summit, held on October 10-11, 2024, in Alexandria, Va.  This groundbreaking event brought together passionate occupational therapy researchers and community partners to elevate and build capacity in community-engaged OT research.

Event Highlights:

• Engaging Panels and Discussions- Attendees participated in three dynamic panels, fostering small-group discussions on:
• Understanding The Spectrum of Community Engagement: From Conceptualization Through Dissemination 
• Building An Infrastructure to Support Community-Engaged Research 
• Measuring And Documenting the Process and Outcomes of Engagement
• Partnership Showcases and Poster Viewings: Breakout sessions featured successful teams sharing their experiences, while two poster viewings provided ample opportunities for conversation and connection.
• Keynote Speakers:
  • Karriem Watson, DHSc, MS, MPH, Chief Engagement Officer, NIH All of Us Research Program, discussed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) program's potential for occupational therapy and addressing disability health disparities.
  • Angel Love Miles, PhD: Presented the benefits of community participatory research in occupational therapy.
• The event showcased the depth and breadth of high-quality community-engaged research within occupational therapy. It also identified and evaluated systematic approaches to community engagement methodologies, including evaluation, measurement, outcomes, and dissemination, and build capacity among individuals with lived experience to actively engage in OT-informed community-engaged research as full and equal partners.

Commitment to DEI: All panels and sessions intentionally integrated diversity, equity, and inclusion, addressing the engagement of underrepresented and minoritized communities.

Future Planning: The summit concluded with a World Café moderated with the help of representatives from local and federal agencies with plans to create a white paper and an Occupational Therapy Journal of Research (OTJR)  manuscript to synthesize discussions across world café questions, ensuring the momentum continues.

Thank you to all who attended and contributed to this summit's success. We look forward to continuing this journey together, advancing occupational therapy research that makes a difference in people’s lives and communities.