Presenter will profile the Health DATA (Data, Advocacy, and Technical Assistance) program, a statewide program of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Health DATA increases the capacity of community-based organizations to use data to improve health policies. The program achieves this by providing a day-long training,technical assistance, and a community scholar project. Health DATA works with small to medium sized advocacy organizations, which are working in their communities to make social change. The presentation will identify working barriers between the university and the community. Examples of obstacles we faced include instances where research goals are not responsive to or informed by community needs and when presentation methods do not include community participation. The Health DATA program has worked to overcome these barriers. For example, the program is designed to learn from the community as well as be a source of information. Training is done using popular education-style techniques that involve community participants. The program developed relationships with community leaders and became responsive to their needs and constraints. We will explore the challenges to this work: limited staff, conflicting work cultures, and the necessity of investing time to sustain relationships with community organizations. Learning Objective: Participants will identify strategies for developing programs that bridge the gap between the community and university to move information to the places where it needs to go – “in the hands of the people”. Session participants will identify the challenges in working with the community from a university base for political and social change.
Learning Objectives: (1) To provide a programmatic foundation of Health DATA, a program that works with the community to use information and research as a tool for social change. (2) To discuss the obstacles of working with the community at a university-based research center and the strategies used to overcome these obstacles
Keywords: Community-Based Partnership, Policy/Policy Development
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: UCLA Center for Health Policy Research
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.