5153.0: Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - Board 8

Abstract #14004

The Community Tool Box: New Developments in Delivering Health and Community Development Information over the Internet

Bill Berkowitz, PhD1, Stephen B. Fawcett, PhD2, Jerry A Schultz, PhD2, Vincent T Francisco, PhD2, Tim Brownlee, BA2, and Tom Wolff, PhD3. (1) Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Lowell, 870 Broadway Street, Suite #1, Lowell, MA 01854, (978) 934-3655, Bill_Berkowitz@uml.edu, (2) Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development, Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development, University of Kansas, 4082 Dole Center, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, (785) 864-0533, sfawcett@falcon.cc.ukans.edu, (3) AHEC/Community Partners, AHEC/Community Partners, 24 South Prospect Street, Amherst, MA 01002, (413) 253-4283, twolff@ahecpartners.org

The Community Tool Box, now five years old, continues to be a leader in delivering health education and health promotion information over the Internet. The site features practical guidelines with step-by-step recommendations on health and community development topics ranging from examining risk factors to conducting advocacy campaigns, and from surveying community assets to collecting third party payments. With over 170 separate instructional modules and over 3500 pages of text -- including examples, stories, resources, checklists, and downloadable overheads -- the Community Tool Box (at http://ctb.lsi.ukans.edu) may be the most extensive single source of free health and community development information now in existence. In this planned poster session (other formats are possible), our aim is to display some more recent Tool Box developments. These include (1) an interactive mentoring system, where viewers can type questions and receive personalized e-mailed answers; (2) distance learning applications in classes; (3) translation of the Tool Box into Spanish; (4) new web server technology now in use; and (5) sample applications made by users around the world. We also hope to share lessons learned about developing and using Web sites since 1995. This presentation will also emphasize back-home applications. We expect it to be interactive. In addition to prepared exhibits (earlier versions of which have been shown at non-APHA conferences), we envision self-quizzes to willing attendees about their use of the Internet, informal mini-discussions about adaptations, and, if logistics permit, brief small-scale demonstrations of the Tool Box in action.

Learning Objectives: After this presentation, participants should be able to: 1. Identify action steps they could take to utilize or adapt Community Tool Box materials in their back-home settings. 2. Create and describe plans for discussions with colleagues about ways in which key aspects of their own health education or promotion work could be delivered over the Internet

Keywords: Internet Tools, Community Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: No specific organization or institution. The Community Tool Box is a collaboration among health and community development professionals at the University of Kansas, AHEC/Community Partners (Amherst, MA), and the University of Massachusetts Lowell
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.

The 128th Annual Meeting of APHA