UA Between Worry Free Community & the Community Resource Organization Project Period: October 2020 - June 2021

The main purpose of this UA is to outline the foundations for our shared understanding of our relationship, and the principles of evidence-based patient-centered health research within the community that will complement faith-based principles of integrated physical and spiritual wellbeing in our collaboration.

Philosophy

Muslim-owned charities and healthcare providers together make up an ecosystem of faith-communities. Every organization is unique in terms of their capacity, expertise, and resources that they offer. Therefore, all non-profits inherently COMPLEMENT each other’s services by delivering programs that cater to the community health mission. To maximize the impact of these efforts, we aim to harness the collective power of collaborative partnerships by establishing a SHARED NETWORK bringing all parties on the same page.

PCOR Principles

The EMPART project, spearheaded and managed by WFC, is guided by patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) principles which coincide with ethical guidelines for community interactions. Throughout the term of this partnership, WFC commits to abiding by the following core principles and asks partner organizations and individuals to pledge the same:

1.         Reciprocal relationship: Treating all participants and community members fairly, equitably, and equally irrespective of gender, race, nationality, culture, religion, ethnicity, ability, and class. Encouraging and enabling all participants to contribute meaningfully to decision-making and other aspects of the research process according to skill, interest, and collective need.

2.         Co-learning: Viewing research collaboration and the process of research as an opportunity to learn from each other and working together to achieve change. Understanding each other’s perspectives, capacities, strengths, and weaknesses will build mutual respect and develop long term relationships in promoting the appropriate research topics of mutual interest and helping patients and caregivers with what matters most to them.

3.         Trust: Keeping in mind that truth is independent of perception and one must be objective and open to understanding and learning the facts as they work with project concepts and others. Working with the intention of establishing a track record of reliability and dependability towards a culture of trust.

4.         Transparency: Having the right intent is the first and the most difficult step in creating transparency. One must examine one’s own conflicting motives and clarify one’s thoughts that may cloud the purity of their intent. Writing down the intent and verifying it with a written goal can help create the appropriate action steps to create transparency which must happen not only at the personal level but must also jive with organizational professionalism. This principle plays a crucial

role in keeping conflict of interests at bay and promoting trust across all stakeholder categories. Implementing transparency at a personal level extends itself to all processes of the project and to all networks within the community.

5.         Honesty: As with transparency, honesty also begins with oneself. Being realistic with oneself and self-assessment of strengths and weaknesses can help participants behave reliably, honestly, and in a trustworthy fashion.

EMPART Project Benefits to Your Organization:

The three main project activities are designed to benefit community stakeholders of all kinds. You and your organization can participate and capitalize on all or any of the following project activities:

1.         Add your organization to the Muslim Community Resource Map (asset map). This will allow the nearby mosque communities to locate your services or products in an instant. The project trained a team of 10 community health research workers in asset mapping technique and they are ready to help you anytime during the virtual outreach (“virtreach”), period of the EMPART project (October 2020 - February 2021). The sooner you add your organization, the more you benefit from this team and this project.

2.         Community TownHalls: As a Community Resource, you have a chance to maximize your influence and your network through participation in the TownHall meetings and monthly stakeholder meetings. You can sign up on the WFC Social Platform to get reminders and updates about this project.

3.         As a Community Resource Partner, you will have the opportunity to attend the upcoming 2-day MOSQUE-PCOR conference in June 2021 for FREE. You will have additional opportunities to contribute to the Big Data that EMPART will accumulate and your active involvement throughout the project may facilitate co-learning and nail down practices for successful and impactful projects for your own organizations.

4.           We encourage anyone interested in the project to utilize the following two channels:

a.         PCORI website: Click here to read and follow the progress of the project at the funder’s website

b.         Follow us on the social platform for the project progress and updates. You can also sign up to participate in the open to stakeholders monthly meetings or get involved in one of the three Advisory Committees.

WFC’s Commitment to Your Organization

●       Honoring each Partner: Partners will have the opportunity to participate in all the stakeholder meetings and may be able to present their services or introduce their community contributions.

●       Logo display: The community partner’s logo will be displayed as a partner organization on the EMPART website, project materials, and the reports that are submitted to the funder, PCORI.

Conflict of Interest

As part of the community health ecosystem and residing in the same environment, all of us serve the same patient and caregiver population in the Chicagoland area. All patients and their caregivers also have equal access to all community health organizations and resources, but they may not have an understanding of utilizing these resources appropriately to benefit them optimally. Helping a community member with a partial understanding of their problems will not only result in confusion for that consumer, it also undermines the efforts of that community-based organization that is helping the patient. The existing siloed environment of our nonprofits is compromising outcome measures and their community impact and is essentially working against patient wellbeing.

Therefore, collaborating and working together towards the shared goals of promoting health and wellness is the only assured way to avoid conflict of interest.

Termination of the Understanding Agreement: This agreement may be terminated by either party provided not less than sixty days’ (60) written notice of intent to terminate without prior consultation.