The Cannabis Research Institute (CRI) recently announced the launch of its Community Partnership Committee (CPC) to help ensure CRI’s seed funding aligns with community priorities and accountability.

The CPC includes members with expertise across Illinois’ cannabis ecosystem with the goal of bringing community perspective into how decisions get made, not after the fact. The inaugural CPC members include Peter Contos, Asya Hill, Molly Jo Lamb, Jose Leme, Dr. Leslie Mendoza Temple, Steve Philpott, Jr., Maru Pintu, Maja Sulemanjee, and Maureen Surin. The CPC will:

–Help design and improve the seed funding application process

–Review applications with the CHeCC team and help inform funding recommendations

–Provide technical assistance to seed funding awardees

According to CRI, the Community Partnership Committee (CPC) is different from the Advisory Committee. The CPC focuses on helping the Community Health and Cannabis Collaborative (CHeCC) team carry out CRI’s equity-centric research funding priority, including guiding seed funding decisions and supporting seed funding awardees, to ensure those investments reflect community priorities. The Advisory Committee focuses on CRI’s overall strategy and direction. In short, the CPC helps shape how CRI funds community-informed research, and the Advisory Committee guides CRI’s overall strategy.

CRI is an academic research institute at the University of Illinois that conducts nonpartisan, unbiased research on cannabis and hemp spanning agriculture, health education, and policy. CRI’s work is grounded in community input, scientific rigor, and attends to the inequitable impacts of the ongoing war on drugs. CRI is funded by the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) for a three-year period beginning in 2024. The funding centers community input and prioritizes equity, defined as the state in which no one is disadvantaged from achieving their full potential because of social position or any other socially defined circumstance. Applied to this seed funding program, CRI aims to fund projects that identify and address the inequities that marginalized groups may experience related to cannabis in Illinois.

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