Roundtable

We must address the challenge of environmental injustice with new and innovative research and advocacy approaches that increase participation of overburdened and underserved EJ populations, enhance literacy and capacity of these populations to use research to address their specific public health issues, and focus on improving parity and equity in funding between community and academic researchers in community-university partnerships. We believe that the work of the West End Revitalization Association (WERA) is a good model for other EJ organizations seeking to perform authentic community-driven, action-oriented research and advocacy. WERA, a community-based environmental protection organization, has founded and sustained a ten-year partnership to address the lack of basic amenities and environmental disparities in poor African-American neighborhoods in Mebane, North Carolina. WERA developed the community-owned and managed research (COMR) framework as the foundation for its community-university partnership which has three primary cores: 1) Research and Training Core, 2) Career Pipeline Development Core, and 3) Collaborative-Problem-Solving Model Core. The purpose of this interactive session will be for members and partners of community-based environmental justice organizations to assess the value of WERA’s Community-Owned and Managed Research Approach and collaborative problem-solving partnership framework in helping them to address their local environmental justice issues. In this session, participants will first learn about different aspects of WERA’s work through a series of presentations. In the second phase of the session, participants will discuss and evaluate the utility and efficacy of WERA’s methods and approaches to address EJ issues in their particular context using a collaborative process.

Session Objectives: 1. Describe the use of the community-owned and managed research approach and collaborative-problem solving framework to address environmental justice issues 2. Discuss how effective the community-owned and managed research approach and collaborative problem-solving principles would be at helping members of community-based EJ organizations and their partners address environmental justice issues 3. Demonstrate how to build an innovative community-driven environmental justice partnership by critiquing the community-owned and managed research approach through a collaborative evaluation process

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)