Active learning collaboratives: A framework for CBPR in three communities

Over the past two years (2010-2012), community coalitions from a city and small-town in New Hampshire (Manchester and Keene) and a rural town in Vermont (St. Johnsbury) are partnering with the Prevention Research Center at Dartmouth (PRCD) in an Action Learning Collaborative (ALC). The ALC model, adapted from the Institute for Health Care Improvement's Collaborative Model for Achieving Breakthough Improvement, was a platform for bringing academia and communities together to develop, implement, and study the CBPR process in health improvement efforts.

The ALC uses an action-learning process in which community teams, with a shared aim, work together using quality improvement tools and methods to plan, implement and study community interventions. Project outputs from the ALC have included changes to workplace environments, increased understanding of urban neighborhood walkability and community organizing for health, and patient engagement tools aimed at hypertension prevention and control. Many of these projects have already been presented to regional and national audiences. The ALC is now focused on a cross-community research project to increase physical activity and healthy eating using community implementation and research teams.

The ALC approach promoted development of enhanced community capacity to support more rigorous CBPR activities. By aligning their work more closely with an academic partner each coalition improved its capacity to carry out more comprehensive, evidence-supported projects and its ability to disseminate work regionally and nationally. The hope is that each coalition also improves its competetiveness to obtain grant or other funding to support priority local public health improvement.