The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #44694

Amy Schulz, PhD¹, Barbara A. Israel, MPH, PhD², Murlisa Lockett, MA³, Yolanda Hill, MSW³, Edith A. Parker, DrPH⁴, Shannon Zenk, MPH⁵, Kelly Baber⁶, and Sharon Sand, MPP⁷. (1) Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan, School of Public Health, 5134 SPH II, 1420 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, 734-647-0221, ajschulz@umich.edu, (2) School of Public Health, University of Michigan, 1420 Washington Heights, Room M5031 SPH II, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, (3) Detroit Health Department, 1151 Taylor Rm 646B, Detroit, MI 48202, (4) Department of Health Behavior & Health Education, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 1420 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, (5) School of Public Health, Health Behavior & Health Education, University of Michigan, 1420 Washington Heights, Room M5511 SPH II, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, (6) Kettering/Butzel Health Initiative, 7737 Kercheval, Detroit, MI 48214, (7) East Side Village Health Worker Partnership, University of Michigan, 1420 Washington Heights, M5065, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

This session will present strategies employed to evaluate and sustain the East Side Village Health Worker Partnership, a lay health advisor intervention on Detroit's east side that uses a community-based participatory process. The East Side Village Health Worker Partnership, a project of the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center, began in 1996 and has as its main goal to address underlying social determinants of health on Detroit's east side. Partnership members include the Butzel Family Center, Detroit Health Department, Kettering-Butzel Health Initiative, Friends of Parkside, Henry Ford Health System, Warren Conner Development Coalition, Islandview Development Corporation, the East Side Parish Nurse Network, and approximately 30 community members who are active as Village Health Workers or lay health advisors. This session will describe: the evaluation methodology employed by the Partnership, including discussion of the challenges of evaluating such a program; the use of evaluation results examining the impact of the Partnership on VHWs and on the community; data collected through the project on an ongoing basis to inform the work of the Partnership; and strategies for institutionalizing and ensuring sustainability of this community-based participatory lay health advisor intervention.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the use of a participatory, community-based intervention research process in the evaluation of a lay health advisor intervention to address social determinants of health in an urban community;
• Recognize dimensions of a process for engaging participants in a community-based participatory evaluation process;
• Describe aspects of the development of a plan for sustainability of a community-based participatory lay health advisor intervention.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.