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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Saleh M. M. Rahman, MBBS, PhD, MPH¹, Cynthia Harris, PhD, DABT¹, Richard D. Gragg, PhD², Howard Hu, MD ScD³, Jaibun Earp, PhD, ARNP, FNP⁴, and Cynthia H. Harris, PhD⁵. (1) Institute of Public Health, Florida A & M University, FSH Science Research Center, Suite 209-A, Tallahassee, FL 32312, 850-599-8840, saleh.rahman@famu.edu, (2) Environmental Sciences Institute, Florida A&M University, 1515 South M.L. King Blvd., RM 305, Tallahassee, FL 32307, (3) Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Channing Laboratory, 181 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115, (4) School of Nursing, Florida A & m Univeristy, 1500 South Brounough St., Tallahassee, FL 32307, (5) Dean, School of Allied Health Sciences, Florida A & M University, 1500 South Bronough St., Tallahassee, FL 32307

Social transformation for eliminating health disparities leading to better, healthier life needs to be achieved through planned social change. Community readiness is the degree to which a community is prepared to take action on a specific issue. This study assesses the community readiness for social transformation through research, training and outreach by using modified methods of the Community Readiness Model in a rural setting. Project CHOICE (Center for Healthy Options and Innovative Community Empowerment) is a collaborative research and dissemination partnership between Florida A & M University and Harvard School of Public Health, to eliminate health disparities in rural Gadsden County, Florida and urban Roxbury community in Boston, Massachusetts. Based on six general specific aims of Project CHOICE the dimensions of readiness such as community efforts, community knowledge of the efforts, leadership, community climate, community knowledge about the issue, resources related to this issue is measured on administrative structure, research capacity and strength, community capacity for participatory research, social marketing, and community capacity and development for eliminating health disparities in Gadsden County, Florida. Based on the calculated score attained by quantitative and qualitative methods the community is placed at any of the nine stages such as: no awareness, denial/resistance, vague awareness, preplanning, preparation, initiation, stabilization, confirmation/expansion and high level of community ownership. The characteristics of each stage also indicate the possible prevention and/or intervention strategies for moving the community towards the upper level of readiness.

Learning Objectives:

• To assess the community readiness based on modified methods of Community Readiness Model for social transformation
• Evaluate the stage based readiness for social transformation through training, research and outreach in a NIH funded project

Keywords: Community, Community Research

Related Web page: www.Projectchoice.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation