246808 Building capacity of community-academic partnerships to create healthy communities through policy change: Communities Working in Partnership

Monday, October 31, 2011

Chris M. Coombe, PhD, MPH , Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Barbara A. Israel, DrPH , Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan, School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI
Maren Spolum , Schools of Public Health and Public Policy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Robert McGranaghan, MPH , School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Akosua Burris, BA , Detroit Edison Public School Academy, Detroit, MI
Sonya Grant, MSW , Community Action Against Asthma, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Richard Lichtenstein, PhD , Health Management and Policy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Edith A. Parker, DrPH , Department of Community and Behavioral Health, The University of Iowa, College of Public Health, Iowa City, IA
Angela G. Reyes, MPH , Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, Detroit, MI
Amy J. Schulz, PhD , School of Public Health, Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Sherita Smith , Imagining Creative Opportunities Now, Detroit, MI
Irene S. Bayer , School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Toby Citrin, JD , Health Management and Policy, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI
Janice Bowie, PhD, MPH , Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Suzanne Cupal , Community Health, Genesee County Health Department, Flint, MI
Alexandra Lightfoot, EdD , Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Elvira Mebane , United Voices, United Voices of Efland-Cheeks, Efland, NC
Adam Schneider , Health Care, Health Care for the Homeless, Baltimore, MD
Arlene Sparks, MPA , GCCARD, Flint, MI
Kim Dobson Sydnor, PhD , School of Community Health and Policy, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD
Millie A. Johnson , Elev8 Program, East Baltimore Development Inc., Baltimore, MD
There have been increasing calls for community-academic partnerships to enhance community capacity to engage in policy change to create healthier communities and reduce health inequities. To this end, the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center (URC), a longstanding community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnership, developed a project to strengthen policy advocacy skills among Detroit residents. To extend its reach to other partnerships, the URC expanded this project into a training-of-trainers, in collaboration with the Community Health Scholars Program (CHSP), a postdoctoral fellowship program to enhance skills of scholars to engage in CBPR. The aim of the project, Communities Working in Partnership (CWP), is to strengthen capacity of CHSP academic and community partners to train residents in their local communities (North Carolina/UNC, Baltimore/Morgan State and Johns Hopkins, Flint/University of Michigan) to engage in policy advocacy to build healthier communities. We describe CWP's collaborative planning process and role of community partners, training content, and results, including: an overall Planning Team comprised of URC community and academic trainers and members of the four CHSP sites; site-specific teams of URC trainers and staff who collaborated with CHSP members to adapt curriculum to each site; a two-day intensive training-of-trainers workshop at each site; development of a “toolkit” of curriculum, materials, and evaluation instruments for participants to adapt to their own communities; and follow-up activities in each community conducted by new CWP trainers. We discuss challenges, facilitating factors, and lessons learned in strengthening capacity of CBPR partnerships to engage local residents in policy change for healthier communities.

Learning Areas:
Advocacy for health and health education
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe the rationale for CBPR partnerships to engage community members in policy change. 2. List components of the Communities Working in Partnership training-of-trainers curriculum. 3. Identify ways in which CBPR principles were applied in adapting and conducting a policy advocacy training for Detroit residents to a training-of-trainers for other communities (Flint, Baltimore, North Carolina). 4. Discuss lessons learned for enhancing capacity of CBPR partners to engage community members in policy change.

Keywords: Community-Based Public Health, Community Capacity

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I co-developed and conducted the policy advocacy program described
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.

See more of: The role of community partners in community based public health
See more of: Community-Based Public Health Caucus