Alton Park/Piney Woods Neighborhood Environmental College: A project to address environmental justice and health disparities in two underserved minority neighborhoods in Chattanooga, TN

This presentation will track how informal popular education and arts learning methods have guided an been integrated into the Alton Park/Piney Woods Neighborhood Environmental College curriculum in order to share, exchange and enhance knowledge among residents and neighborhood partners about the interrelationship of environmental and social determinates and health disparities and how these relationships shape access to healthy foods, physical activity, and safe neighborhoods. We will describe the popular education and arts goals, approaches, data, evaluation, and documentation methods we have used. We will demonstrate how the use of popular education and arts methods such as Theatre of the Oppressed, community history time-lines, oral history narratives, music and dance, visual art, film, and GIS mapping have developed cultural competency, sensitivity, and fluency in outreach and education. We will reflect on the contributions of these efforts to community building, forging partnerships, influencing policy and promoting trust among stakeholders.