Eat Walk Sleep Discuss: Building a Participatory Relationship Using Many Small Steps

Background/significance: Relationships between community and university partners need to be responsive to opportunities for addressing emerging community needs as well as for identifying research resources. Building a long term partnership from a series of initiatives is challenging but achievable. Objective/Purpose: Guided by the Healthy Communities paradigm, a multi-faceted relationship developed between UMass Medical School, the MA Department of Public Health Community Health Network Area (CHNA) Common Pathways Coalition and the Worcester Refugee Assistance Project (WRAP). Methods: Student-engaged community work at WRAP was originally supported by an external foundation fellowship. Existing partnerships between the university and the local CHNA were leveraged to expand the relationship with WRAP. Portions of an ongoing CHNA-led summer conversation series were utilized for refugee community identification, needs assessment, and neighborhood asset mapping exercises. Prevention Research Center funding allowed the partners to employ the community-based participatory research approach to identify health topics of mutual concern and to pilot research on primary prevention of chronic disease. Results: All partners were better able to achieve mission-based goals through partnership activities. Community members were able to play a central role in adapting and piloting existing prevention curricula. Students and refugee youth together provided health education to families, creating a foundation for meaningful future caregiving relationships. Discussion: A partnership among multiple agencies/organizations can grow from roots in student engagement. This type of partnership, developed from multiple small initiatives, can engage in a range of community-based participatory activities, which can be shaped in response to needs as they are identified and defined.