Recorded presentation

Suzanne Christopher, PhD, Adina Smith, PhD, Alma Knows His Gun McCormick, and Shaleen Old Coyote. Department of Health and Human Development, Montana State University, 104 Hosaeus Complex, Bozeman, MT 59717, 406-994-6321, suzanne@montana.edu

Messengers for Health on the Apsáalooke Reservation is a 4-year community-based participatory cervix health project based in Southwest Montana. The project uses female community members, called Messengers, to spread cervix health information and provide encouragement and support to community women to receive Pap tests. Project staff were eligible to apply for another five years of funding with the caveat that the new funding proposal include an expansion of the existing project versus another five years of the same goals and objectives. During the third year of funding, we began a dialogue in the community to consider areas for expansion. This presentation will discuss the various ways that these potential areas for expansion emerged and how they were linked with or different from the original program goals. A total of five new areas were suggested. We will share these areas, the process we went through in discussing the ideas in the community, and how one area was selected for expansion and inclusion in the grant proposal. We will then discuss the process of how the community was engaged in developing the general area into specific program content for the grant application.

Learning Objectives: