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Empowering Patients Living with Cancer, Survivors, Advocates and Consumers

The US Food and Drug Administration, Oncology Center of Excellence, Project Community has announced a new community-based initiative, National Black Family Cancer Awareness Week, scheduled for June 17 through June 23, 2021.

The purpose is to increase cancer awareness in one of the most vulnerable segments of the US population. National Black Family Cancer Awareness Week aims to marshal community-based stakeholders to build knowledge surrounding cancer clinical trial participation and minority population specimen donations to national genetic databases for cancer research.

Call to Action

OCE Project Community needs YOU for this grassroots initiative! Why? Because Black families are among the most vulnerable and hardest hit for cancer risk, diagnoses and poor outcomes. The call to action is embedded in our social media effort: #BlackFamCan.

Your immediate role is to decide how you or your group will begin raising awareness about National Black Family Cancer Awareness Week and publicize it using our social media toolkit below. Please mention #BlackFamCan when you post. 

The OCE is hosting a public panel discussion June 17, 2021, to officially initiate the first ever National Black Family Cancer Awareness Week. Details below. The remainder of the week, June 17-23, is yours to upload your evidence of the meaningful and potentially lifesaving activities you’ve carried out, either prior to or during that week.

How to Participate

Examples of your potential engagement might include but aren’t limited to:

• Prostate, breast, colon or lung cancer awareness discussions sponsored by your community health and wellness program leaders.
• Students and seniors working together (virtually or properly socially distanced) on a project reflecting family history and cancer awareness.
• Conducting a virtual walk, 5K or Zoom-based exercise (movement) session to address the importance of exercise in preventing cancer.
• An informal recipe swap designed to update family food favorites to healthier versions to promote diet and cancer prevention.
• Links to academic papers on increasing cancer equity in the Black community are also welcome. 

Public Panel Discussion: Conversation on Cancer

Register to attend the National Black Family Cancer Awareness Week: Engaging the Generations #BlackFamCan public panel discussion (via Zoom). Your organization’s efforts might be highlighted as part of the panel discussion. 

Date: Thursday, June 17, 2021

Time: 2 pm - 3:30 pm ET

Registration Link

Meeting Information

National Family Cancer Awareness Week: Engaging the Generations, #BlackFamCan is next in the series of OCE Conversations on Cancer. OCE is engaging NCI-designated Cancer Centers, cancer advocacy groups, patients, social and community organizers, families and friends.

How to Use This Social Media Toolkit

Treat this toolkit and these copyright-free materials as your own. Download, socialize, and localize the content in ways that fit the needs of your channels, messaging, and audience. Please remember to use the #BlackFamCan hashtag when tweeting or posting content related to National Black Family Cancer Awareness Week events and images.

Socialize: #BlackFamCan toolkit materials are designed to be shared. If you have a Twitter or Facebook account and an interest in helping OCE Project Community promote cancer awareness on social media, we hope you too will make frequent and free use of the toolkit.

Localize: All toolkit materials are localizable in some way, whether that be by adding your agency’s logo and URL to a print-out or by pairing one of our graphics with a social media message of your own.

There are 7 Twitter graphics and 7 Facebook/Instagram graphics available in the sections below. Click the download link in each section below to save images and other materials to your computer or device. To save one image, on a desktop, right click "save image as" or on a mobile device, press and hold until a prompt pops up and save image on your camera roll.

Responding to Presidential Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity

OCE Project Community’s initiation of National Black Family Cancer Awareness Week is in accordance with the January 20, 2021, Presidential Executive Order, “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, Section 8,” and in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the National Cancer Act.

Section 8 of the Presidential Executive Order states: Engagement with Members of Underserved Communities. In carrying out this order, agencies shall consult with members of communities that have been historically underrepresented in the Federal Government and underserved by, or subject to discrimination in, Federal policies and programs. The head of each agency shall evaluate opportunities, consistent with applicable law, to increase coordination, communication, and engagement with community-based organizations and civil rights organizations.

The 50th anniversary of the signing of the National Cancer Act is December 23, 2021. OCE Project Community’s National Black Family Cancer Awareness Week initiative will continue to upload, update and share additional #BlackFamCan contributions through 2021.

Thank you #BlackFamCan kickoff collaborators!

Connect With Us!

Twitter: #BlackFamCan, #OCEProjectCommunity

Email: [email protected]

Additional Information

• OCE’s Project Community
• FDA Resources for Patients With Cancer
• FDA Oncology Center of Excellence
• Alternatives to Using Placebos in Cancer Clinical Trials (1.5MB PDF)
• What is Precision Oncology? (2.6MB PDF)
• Cancer and Men (HHS Office of Minority Health)
• Link to article: Disparities in Cancer Prevention in the COVID-19 Era
• About FDA Patient Engagement