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Abstract #149654

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H. Virginia McCoy, PhD, Stempel School of Public Health Center for Health Policy and Research, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th Street, Miami, FL 33199, 305-348-2620, mccoyh@fiu.edu and Christie K. Vila, PhD, Department of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Florida International University Stempel School of Public Health, 11200 SW 8th Street, HLS II 662, Miami, FL 33199.

Objectives: Objectives include provision of an enhanced community outreach model for developing partnerships between health and human service professionals and researchers. The project, a 5 year NIH-funded intervention study, established in a Spanish-speaking migrant community in South Florida, focuses on HIV prevention and testing. The process of building culturally appropriate support networks for Latino migrants enhanced this research. Community partners became active from start to finish by aiding in decision making, leading to informed policy, cultural acceptability, coordination of care, and quality programming.

Methods: The Center for Health Research and Policy has actively built and maintained community partnerships for over a decade. Researchers first contacted a small group of previously engaged local health and human services providers to serve as a “community advisory board” immediately following project funding. During the start-up phase, this group branched out. A key to this success is a solid framework building on collaboration between academia and community organizations. Evaluation measures on participation in decisions include: attendance; integration of suggestions and feedback on materials; staff referrals and performance levels of interagency efforts for coordination of care.

Results: The integration of community partners, local multi-lingual research staff, and Latino peer networks in decision making provided a solid foundation for which to base the research. Because researchers took the time to establish themselves in solidarity with community partners, the project's integrity and reputation became evident to aid recruitment and spread the word about HIV testing and education among migrants and locally established Latinos.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be able to

(
• Identify community leaders that are appropriate for long term partnerships; (
• Define and evaluate a health promotion decision making process; (
• Develop culturally appropriate advocacy strategies; and, (
• Integrate community partnerships to strengthen pre-planned outreach strategies and research designs.

Keywords: Community Collaboration, Research

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

• Audio (mp3) recording
• Slides (pdf) or Handout