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Extending the community leg of the three-legged partnership stool: Examples from Flint, Michigan

Charlene Acker, Genesee County Community Action Resource Department (GCCARD), 601 N. Saginaw St., Suite 1B, Flint, MI 48502, (810) 232-2185, cacker01@hotmail.com and Yanique A. Redwood-Jones, MPH, Office of Community-Based Public Health, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 109 S. Observatory, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029.

This presentation will describe the Broome Team, a community-academic-practice partnership (often likened to a three-legged stool) organized in 1992 in Genesee County, Michigan. The Broome Team is the nucleus of a cluster of partnerships addressing community health issues organized 12 years ago as part of the Community-Based Public Health Initiative of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The Team developed a unique blend of guiding principles, trusting relationships, and mutual understanding that caused it to become a nationally recognized partnership model. During these 12 years, the Broome Team has formed the core of a number of affiliated partnerships engaged in public health research and practice to address community-level problems, including forming the core of the Community Board of the Prevention Research Center of Michigan, one of 28 PRCs funded in 1998 by the Centers for Disease Control nationally. Through these affiliated partnerships, Broome Team members are active in programs to reduce health disparities and youth violence, “pipeline” programs to promote health careers, programs to promote self-esteem and development of racial identity, and projects to promote access to culturally sensitive health care. This partnership believes that solutions to traditionally defined community-level problems can only be found when the community has representation and an equal place at the decision-making table. This policy is implemented through the partnership’s structure and governance, procedures and principles, and decision-making processes. Examples of ways in which the Broome Team challenges local and national policy makers about the role of the community in decision-making will be highlighted.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to

Keywords: Community, Policy/Policy Development

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.

Innovative Applications of Community Based Research

The 132nd Annual Meeting (November 6-10, 2004) of APHA