Oral

This session will describe two community-based participatory health initiatives that engaged community members as leaders of health planning and policy development approaches to reduce obesity. These initiatives are located in the Washington, DC metropolitan area in communities with obesity rates approaching 50 percent and populations of color exceeding 90 percent. These efforts are focused on giving voice to underrepresented groups in health planning and policy development processes. Specifically, they focus on low- income African American families in Washington, DC for one project and diverse income African American and Latino families in the Port Towns (MD) just outside of DC for the second project. Through funding from the community benefit unit of a healthcare partner, both of these initiatives are using evidence-based system-level interventions (policies and environmental strategies) that promote healthy eating and active living to join the national fight against childhood and adult obesity. This collection of papers utilizes the voices of community members, who are also new presenters, to tell their stories about the contributions their neighbors and other partners are making to advance our understanding of "evidence-based planning and policy approaches” to eliminate racial/ethnic inequities and create healthy communities. The communities of focus are in the cross-jurisdictional region (DC-MD-VA) where the annual meeting will be held. The partnerships described share a common funder and evaluator who can lend insights into the successes and challenges of engaging community members both in planning and evaluating systems-level approaches to community health planning and policy development that address health inequities.

Session Objectives: 1. Discuss strategies for utilizing community members to identify or advance evidenced-based health planning and policy processes to address health inequities 2. Describe challenges to community-led health planning and policy development and methods to address these challenges 3. Identify strategies for evaluating community health planning, policy and advocacy processes

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH) , Masters Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES)