Creating Healthy Environments through Community-Generated, Community-Engaged, and Community-Level Interventions

Health disparities research is increasingly influenced by 2 research paradigms: community-based participatory research (CBPR) and social determinants of health (SDOH). CBPR approaches call for collaborative relationships that empower communities to co-generate research programs while SDOH perspectives focus on macro-level or “upstream” factors influencing individual health outcomes. This workshop will use presentation, facilitated dialogue, and interactive exercises to demonstrate how a CBPR approach can be used to address SDOH among residents living in a public housing community and an adjacent neighborhood. We first introduce “Repaired Window Theory,” which provides the theoretical underpinnings for using community-generated, community-level, and community-engaged interventions to reduce community crime and perceptions of crime by promoting community participation and interaction, neighborhood ownership, and collective action. We will describe how this theory was used to guide the development of the Community Empowerment Center (CEC), the cornerstone of a quasi-experimental community trial conducted in 2 public housing communities in Columbia, SC. The CEC serves as a springboard for building residents’ capacity to develop community-level, community-engaged interventions. In this presentation, we will describe the Community Workshop Program that was developed to provide technical assistance to residents in the development of grant proposals that focused on creating healthier community environments through neighborhood improvement. Next, the Request for Applications will be presented; the peer-review process used to independently evaluate each submitted grant application will also be discussed. We will review the proposals selected for funding; each received up to $12,000 to enact their interventions over a 6-month time frame. The awarded programs focused on hunger and food security, exercise and wellness, and community advocacy. Finally, we will present the mixed methods approach developed to evaluate the study including process and outcome measures. The workshop will conclude with facilitated dialogue about the facilitators and barriers to implementing the mini grant program with community members.