Taking It to the curbside: Engaging communities to create sustainable change for health

Background: Capacity building and sustainability of community health improvement efforts are important concepts for Community based participatory research (CBPR). However, community partners and investigators have few opportunities to come together to develop shared definitions and strategies for enhancing capacity building and creating sustainable community health impact. Methods: In 2010, funded by Association for Prevention Teaching and Research (APTR), the Harvard Catalyst CBPR initiative in collaboration with other regional Clinical Translational Science Awards (CTSAs) and community organizations hosted a conference to define these concepts and identify facilitators, obstacles and strategies for both. Results: Over 200 people attended the conference; 54% were investigators and 46% were community partners. The program included a keynote speaker, panel discussions and breakout sessions in which participants engaged in facilitated discussions using case examples. Following the conference, a cross CTSA group, consisting of community partners and researchers embarked on a qualitative analysis of the breakout sessions to 1) define capacity building and sustainability, 2) identify obstacles and facilitators and 3) pinpoint strategies. The analytic process included identification of themes and development of a final code book. The key elements identified as necessary for capacity building and sustainability included committed partnerships; enduring activities, infrastructure; concrete outcomes; and multi-level focus. Obstacles and facilitators included partnership characteristics, resources, shared goals and contextual factors. Conclusions: Opportunities for investigators and community partners to jointly define important constructs in community health help develop shared understanding of key concepts such as capacity building and sustainability. Both are crucial elements for community health improvement.