From building capacity to building power: Lessons for public health pedagogy

The very idea of capacity building, though often necessary and important, is a bit presumptuous. We work with people, with communities to draw out their assets and expand upon them – if we do it well – in order to help them gain greater power and agency over the institutions and systems that affect their lives. This session explores a model developed through the work of Communities Creating Healthy Environments (CCHE), a capacity building initiative that supports community organizing and policy advocacy to address childhood obesity in 22 communities and indigenous nations nationwide. It's unique, community-led policy development process; focus on grassroots organizing; and culturally competent capacity building is part of a shift in practice from focusing on organizational development and support toward a more expansive orientation toward movement building. This session will explore emerging lessons from this multi level collaboration that, from application process to evaluation, has sought to forge a collaborative “action space” where everyone is both teacher and learner accountable to each other as agents of change.