259123 Enhancing Equitable Engagement: Using Google Analytics and Other Web-Based Tools to Strengthen and Expand Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Partnership- the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center (URC)

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Julia Weinert, MPH , Health Behavior & Health Education, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI
Robert McGranaghan, MPH , School of Public Health, 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
Dawn Richardson, DrPH, MPH , School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Zachary Rowe, BBA , Friends of Parkside, Detroit, MI
Ricardo Guzman, MSW, MPH , Community Health & Social Services Center, Inc, Detroit, MI
Ashley O'Toole, MPH/MSW , University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Angela G. Reyes, MPH , Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, Detroit, MI
There have been increasing calls for the development of collaborative academic-community partnerships to examine and address health inequities, and which actively involve community partners in all aspects of the research process. Community entities and academic institutions need enhanced capacity to conduct such research and to fundamentally transform communications and collaboration between communities and academic institutions. The Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center (Detroit URC), a community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnership established in 1995, has successfully created an infrastructure that has fostered etiologic research, intervention and policy translation projects. We have incorporated the use of web-based tools, such as Facebook, Twitter, an interactive website, and Google Analytics, to facilitate and expand the establishment of CBPR partnerships and to enhance the capacity of all partners to equitably engage in CBPR efforts.

We will describe the social media and web-based tools and strategies used by the Detroit URC to enhance communication aimed at creating new and strengthening existing community-academic collaborative partnerships. We will also present preliminary findings from data generated by Google Analytics, a web-based tracking tool that has enabled us to determine the focus and investment of resources within the partnership; and to foster the dissemination of relevant information beyond traditional venues (e.g., peer-reviewed publications). We will examine the role of community partners in this process and discuss challenges, facilitating factors, and lessons learned in using social media and web-based tools to support and expand community-academic partnerships to address community-based public health issues and ultimately improve health of Detroit residents across the lifespan.

Learning Areas:
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Communication and informatics
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe the approach taking by the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center to use social media and web-based tools to facilitate equitable expansion of CBPR partnerships. 2. Analyze the strategies used to incorporate social media and web-based tools to support community and academic partners and enhance their abilities to conduct collaborative research focusing on community-based public health issues. 3. Discuss the role of community partners in the process of analyzing and translating web-based data to address community-based public health issues. 4. List the challenges and facilitating factors involved in using social media and web-based tools to support community-academic partnerships to address community-based public health issues.

Keywords: Communication Technology, Community Collaboration

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the communications specialist on multiple federally funded grants focusing on expanding collaborative partnerships. Among my scientific interests has been engagement in community-based participatory research.
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.

Back to: 4262.0: Lessons learned from community-based participatory research projects