It's October, and we are officially launching our O4CT CCReW Support Campaign & Challenge.
When we noticed those two conspicuous letters 'CT' in the word October, it struck us that it was a perfect month to encourage individuals and organisations to think about how they might be supporting people taking part in and contributing their lived experience to clinical trials and medical research (the people we call CCReW), and take action, independently or with AccessCR.
We shot a question out to our Facebook group... "What could OCT stand for, in the context of the fundraising for CCReW Travel scholarships?" (Those scholarships are what we raised funding for last year, which helped support 14 CCReW to attend scientific conferences that would not have otherwise been able to do).
Our community came back with suggestions like "Optimise Consumer Travel", Offer CCReW Travel", "October CCReW Travel" but also some broader suggestions like "Open Clinical Trials (to the Community), "Open CCReW Training", and "Outstanding/Original CCReW Training/Travel/Teaching" and "Optimise Clinical Trials". These ideas reminded us that there is a need to do so much more than just fund CCReW Travel Scholarships, and that our CCReW community need more.
Our plans for the CCReW Initiative have always been to do more than just CCReW Conference Travel Support Scholarships. So we are taking the leap of faith on the back of listening to our community, to be more ambitious for the year ahead. For 2024, our plans include:
- * more community outreach collateral and events to build capacity for getting the community involved as participants or partners in clinical trials,
- * funding and resourcing our clinical trials hotline (1800 Trials) as a connection point for information, access to and issues surrounding clinical trials,
- * welcome and thankyou's for trial participants,
- * continued advocacy for what's needed to get the patient/carer voice into research, development and pathways to access innovative treatments, and improve the experience * of trial participation, and of course,
- * continuing to fund CCReW Conference Travel Scholarships.
As a social enterprise, rather than a not-for-profit charity, AccessCR's business model is based on providing goods and services to fund the social good we do, rather than rely on philanthropy alone. We provide something hopefully of value to you, so we can fund advocacy, information and support for CCReW.
We have been thinking about how to expand the 'goods & services' we provide, outside of our consultancy and contracting services, in a way that aligns with both providing value to our customers, and our mission to support CCReW. That has led to the launch today of our "Origami 4 Clinical Trials" range of kits and workshops, as well as the "CCReW Believer" offerings on our new online shop.
To encourage individuals and organisations to make an investment in CCReW support during October, we are announcing that we will be providing awards in each of the following categories for the individuals and organisations that purchase (pay for) the most between 1-31 Oct 2023.
- * Individual Champion - Origami 4 Clinical Trials
- * Organisation Champion - Origami 4 Clinical Trials
- * Individual Champion - CCReW Believers
- * Organisation Champion - CCReW Believers
You need to be in it to win it, so check out our new store now, and find something win-win that will work for you, and ultimately help CCReW! And, even if you aren't ready to take purchase in October, our store will be available when the time is right for you to help support CCReW.
So to get back to what the O stands for in O4CT.... Does it mean October? Origami? Optimise? Open? Offer? Outstanding? Well, we think these words all fit our purpose, so will leave the choice up to you. What matters to us is that you think about it, and take action. We hope you will consider AccessCR's offerings as part of that.