Enhancing community participation in policy change: A partnership approach to neighborhood advocacy training for health equity

There have been increasing calls for community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships to enhance the capacity of communities to engage in policy change to reduce health inequities. However, most policy advocacy training is aimed at organizations and focuses on legislative campaigns, which may not enable community members to influence other types of local decision-making, such as enforcement, budget priorities, or organizational policies. Furthermore, advocacy training may be less effective if it is not adapted to the diverse residents and contexts of neighborhoods, including age, language, race/ethnicity, and historic inequities.

To address these concerns, the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center (URC) designed and implemented Neighborhoods Working in Partnership, a four-session policy advocacy training for community residents aimed at creating healthy neighborhoods. A total of 228 residents of seven Detroit neighborhoods participated in the training, nearly half of them youth. Interactive presentations and activities using local issues included: the difference between policies and programs; power mapping; choosing strategies; designing a policy advocacy campaign; talking with policymakers; communication strategies; and building connections across communities.

We will describe how CBPR and adult learning theory were integral to the development and content of NWP, including: training-of-trainers by PolicyLink; engaging diverse partners' expertise; use of academic and community trainer teams; adapting to neighborhood contexts; building on community strengths; providing separate space for youth voices; and using participant feedback to improve trainings. We discuss challenges, facilitating factors, and lessons learned for using CBPR to enhance residents' capacity for policy change aimed at creating more just and healthy communities.