The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #65245

Clarissa Hsu, PhD, Center for Community Health and Evaluation, Group Health Community Foundation, 1730 Minor Avenue, Suite 1500, Seattle, WA 98101, (206) 287-4691, hsu.c@ghc.org, Maria Casey, MA, MEd, Partnership for the Public's Health, Public Health Institute, 505 14th Street, suite 810, Oakland, CA 94612, Rhonda Sarnoff, DrPH, MSPH, Partnership for the Public's Health, California Public Health Institute, 505 14th St., Oakland, CA 94612, Allen Cheadle, PhD, Department of Health Services, University of Washington, 146 N. Canal St., Suite 300, Box 358853, Seattle, WA 98195, Pamela M. Schwartz, MPH, Center for Community Health and Evaluation, Kaiser Foundation Research Institute, One Kaiser Plaza, 22nd Floor, Oakland, CA 94612, and William Beery, MPH, Kaiser Permanente Community Foundation, 1730 Minor Avenue, Suite 1500, Seattle, WA 98101.

Partnerships between community groups and public health agencies represent an innovative approach for promoting community involvement in the design and implementation of health related programs, policies and services. The involvement of community is considered a necessary ingredient for reducing social, class and ethnic health disparities. However, a great deal remains to be learned about the skills, resources and contextual factors needed for communities to effectively collaborate with public health institutions. The Partnership for the Public’s Health (PPH) Initiative offers unique insights into the capacities needed to create effective and sustainable changes in the ways health departments and communities engage one another. The PPH Initiative’s funding of partnerships across a broad spectrum of ethnic, class and social diversity makes the information generated from these partnerships particularly helpful.

This presentation examines preliminary findings on community capacities needed for effective community-based public health partnerships. How these community capacities cluster and the linkages between effective partnerships and community health improvement will also be explored. Other topics to be addressed include: 1) processes used to identify core community capacities, 2) the challenges involved in weighing and assessing these capacities and 3) practical suggestions for evaluation data collection and analysis regarding community capacities in a multi-site projects.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this presentation the participant will be able to:
• List the capacities of communities that are associated with effective partnership with health departments
• Articulate how these capacities interact with contextual factors and the possible linkages they have with intermediate health improvement outcomes
• Describe the data collection and analysis process used to identify these capacities.

Keywords: Community Collaboration, Evaluation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Partnership for the Public's Health
Disclosure not received
Relationship: Not Received.