Community Ownership through Empowerment


Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

4177.0: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 - Board 7

Abstract #112997

Christine Tedjasukmana, BS¹, Dianne Adams, BA¹, Jennifer L. Batoon, BSPH¹, Natalie Martinez, BS¹, Anamika Pandya, BS¹, Mellissa Rouhe, MA¹, R. Patti Herring, PhD, RN², and Susanne B. Montgomery, PhD, MPH³. (1) Health Promotion & Education, Loma Linda University, Nichol Hall, Loma Linda, CA 92350, 909-558-8729, tedjasuk@netscape.net, (2) School of Public Health, Health Promotion & Education, Loma Linda University, Nichol Hall, Room 1509, Loma Linda, CA 92350, (3) Department of Health Promotion and Education, School of Public Health, Loma Linda University, Nicol Hall Room 1511, Loma Linda, CA 92350

In response to the many unmet health needs of a low income community in the city of San Bernardino, CA a local community-based organization raised funds to build a new health clinic.In line with their philosophy of empowerment it was decided to identify a community advisory board (CAB) to help give the community an active voice.The use of CABs is an innovative way for communities to collaboratively work to improve, empower, and unify their communities and ensure that services provided fit their needs.Once community members for this board are chosen, they need to be given the tools to act in their expected roles.As part of a service-learning project public health graduate students conducted a systematic process to understand the motivation and determine the training needs of the potential board members.This needs assessment consisted of an extensive literature review on the role of CABs, ethnographic work, 12 key informant interviews and one focus group.Respondents were chosen using systematic sampling and interviews conducted based on a theory-based semi-structured outline. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using grounded theory methods.Data suggest that community members are motivated to participate in a CAB because they want to voice their opinions, appreciate feeling heard, and because of their belief that their input will ensure the responsive and efficient service delivery by the facility.This paper will describe the content and present the results (process and impact) of the resulting CAB member training.Practical experiences about this challenging process will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the session, the participants will be able to

1. Identify three items seen necessary in establishing an effective community advisory boards.
2. Identify three reasons to implement a community advisory board in a given underserved community.
3. Define at last three other ways to empower the community and give them a voice.
4 Describe how they would apply the project’s lessons learned in their own communities.

Keywords: Community Assets, Community Response

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Serving Cultural and Linguistic Minorities with Evidence-based Programs

The 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition (December 10-14, 2005) of APHA