Kellogg Community Health Scholars Program: The architecture and impact of faculty training in community-based participatory research

This presentation will describe from the WK Kellogg Foundation's and its external evaluator's points of view, the conceptual framework and building blocks (program inputs) and impact of the Community Health Scholars Post-doctoral Program (CHSP). The paper will first describe laying the foundation: how the program's design and inputs promoted capacity building for academic leadership in community-based participatory research (CBPR) in public health; institution building at various levels of operation, community development and community leadership at grassroots levels; and policy applications. Program specific topics captured under the rubric of health disparities have been singled out for special treatment. The presentation will also describe the Foundation's external evaluation. External evaluation clearly demonstrated successful outcomes of the 9-year WK Kellogg Foundation-sponsored Community Health Scholars Program. Data obtained from five major sources--1) ongoing ethnographic participatory analyses throughout the life of the CHSP by the program's external evaluator; 2) interviews of CHSP alumni by the external evaluator; 3) an impact analysis from an independent consultant; 4) ongoing internal analyses of CHSP networking meetings by the CHSP National Program Office; 5) program implementation analyses by participating Training Sites and linked communities and Community-Based Organizations. The paper will provide information obtained from each of the above five sectors and delineate success benchmarks for this program which as served has a catalyst for a transformative movement in public health.