260751 Advancing Equity in a CBPR Partnership: Seeds of HOPE and the CBPR Charrette Process

Tuesday, October 30, 2012 : 10:45 AM - 11:00 AM

Alexandra Lightfoot, EdD , Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Katie Barnes, BA , Seeds of HOPE/PRC National Community Committee, UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Chapel Hill, NC
Christina Hardy, MPH , Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Barbara Harris , Community Action Council, Wallace, NC
Eugenia Eng, MPH, DrPH , Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Barbara Council , UNC TraCS CARES/HPDP, Community Expert Consultant, Oak City, NC
Nettie Coad , The Partnership Project, Greensboro, NC
Salli Benedict, MPH , Seeds of HOPE, UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Preventin (retired), Chapel Hill, NC
Imani Rivera , Coharie Tribal Center, Seeds of HOPE Community Coordinator, Clinto, NC
Patricia Peterson , Coharie Intra Tribal Council, Seeds of HOPE Community Coordinator, Clinton, NC
Molly M. De Marco, PhD, MPH , Center for Health Promotion & Disease Prevention, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Alice Ammerman, DrPH, RD , Nutrition, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Background: Building effective and equitable research partnerships presents challenges, warranting heightened efforts to enhance partnership capacity. Seeds of HOPE (SOH), the Core Research Project at UNC's Prevention Research Center (PRC), uses a CBPR approach to address obesity prevention and economic empowerment for women in rural eastern North Carolina. Even with its impressive record of sustained partnership, the SOH's Community Action Council (CAC) is continually striving to strengthen its approach. Recently, 17 CAC members went through a CBPR Charrette, a multi-step process providing technical assistance to community-academic research partnerships, developed through collaboration between UNC's PRC and CTSA (Clinical Translational Science Award). Methods: The CAC requested a CBPR Charrette to address two challenges: 1) future grant planning/budget development in an era of federal budget cuts; and 2) decision-making power structure between the university and the community. The four steps of a Charrette were conducted over a four month period by a team of 3 CBPR expert consultants (2 community, 1 academic), 2 facilitators, 1 evaluator, and 2 notetakers. Results: Data collected from the Charrette were used to assess CAC strengths, pinpoint challenges, derive solutions, and identify resources. Expert consultants suggested revising CAC's governance structure to adapt to current conditions for partnership equity. The Charrette process introduced an assessment tool that the CAC is using to measure partnership change and growth over time. Conclusion: This session highlights how the CBPR Charrette process helped a partnership grapple productively with challenges and how it applied the advice to enhance equity between community and academic partners.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Diversity and culture
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
1. Identify steps in the CBPR Charrette process. 2. Discuss strategies for enhancing equity in community-academic research partnerships. 3. Describe how the technical assistance provided through the CBPR Charrette process has been applied by a community-academic partnership.

Keywords: Community-Based Partnership, Challenges and Opportunities

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the director of the project, Community Leadership to Build Capacity for CBPR, which developed the CBPR Charrette Process. I am also director of the CBPR Core at the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. I also have experience in community-based participatory research, including Photovoice, and working on programs focused on eliminating disparities and promoting healthy choices and behavior to support the growth and development of youth, families and communities.
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.