226311 Engaging community in developing, implementing, and evaluating a multilevel community-based culturally situated website

Monday, November 8, 2010

Carly Hutchinson, MA , Columbia University, Harlem Health Promotion Center, New York, NY
Amy Kwan, MPH , Community, Society and Health DPH Program, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY
Andrea M. Nye, MPH, MBA , Harlem Health Promotion Center and Project STAY, Columbia University, New York, NY
Alwyn Cohall, MD , Harlem Health Promotion Center, Columbia University, New York, NY
Mary E. Northridge, PhD, MPH , Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University, New York, NY
Background: Community-academic partnerships have historically been challenging for researchers and community participants alike because of differing languages, objectives, and cultures. The defining of interventions as multilevel, community-based, and culturally situated emphasizes the importance of understanding community context as prelude to community intervention. This approach was used to develop, implement, and evaluate a locally-focused health information and social networking website in Harlem, New York City. Methods: Focus groups, key informant interviews, and a telephone survey were used to elicit consumer ideas and feedback for the website. Community partnerships and a community advisory group were formed to provide ongoing direction and support. The development process was an iterative progression by which key processes and decisions were discussed among the advisory group members and researchers until consensus was reached. Results: Based upon partner feedback, the GetHealthyHarlem.org website was created and implemented with educational content capable of being rated by users and social networking capacity for blogging, joining discussion groups, and posting events. Partnerships were critical for ensuring the website would benefit from and be utilized by a wide range of users. A growing social justice movement in Harlem around health issues, especially food, was evident as site users created and voted on content and communicated online. Conclusions: Engaging community in the creation of a website intervention allowed for both consumer and professional feedback to be well integrated into its content and functionality. The community relationships formed better ensured a central role of community context and culture in conceptualizing, implementing, and evaluating the intervention.

Learning Areas:
Communication and informatics
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe various methods for using community engagement in conceptualizing, implementing, and evaluating an online intervention. 2. Discuss the merits of multilevel, community-based, and culturally situated online content for health education, health communication and community capacity building.

Keywords: Communication Technology, Community Collaboration

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am qualified to present because I oversee communications and community engagement around public health education, health promotion and health communication.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.