Academic and community partners: Meeting the health needs of the underserved

The community health fair is a strategy commonly used by public health nurses to disseminate health information on primary and secondary prevention measures within a community. Few studies have evaluated the impact and outcome of a community health fair as an intervention to a community needs assessment. The purpose of this presentation is to explain the implementation of a community health fair resulting from a community assessment conducted by a CHN graduate student and her faculty.

The Center City Coordination Project (C3) identified the area of need; it was found to encompass a low income population that lacked resources, with high rates of unemployment, little or no health insurance, and limited accessible medical services. The planning stage began with the idea to develop a community wide health fair to bring health resources into the area. Collaborating with the C3 project coordinators, several community based health agencies were recruited for participation in the health fair. The site chosen for the health fair was centrally located and within walking distance for the target population. The health fair was planned and advertized using various types of media. The goals of the project were to increase the community's awareness of available community resources for health promotion and safety, and the provision of health screenings. Evaluation was a non-experimental post-test only design. Barriers and facilitators of the project will be discussed, and results of the health fair will be presented.