Working with Communities to Generate Community-Level and Community-Engaged Interventions to Reduce Health Disparities

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 research relationships that empower communities to co-generate research programs while SDOH perspectives focus on macro-level or “upstream” factors influencing individual health outcomes. This research incorporates a CBPR approach to address SDOH among residents living in a public housing community and an adjacent neighborhood in Columbia, SC. A mini grant program was developed to encourage community members to develop community-level and community-engaged interventions focused on creating a healthier community environment through neighborhood improvement; mini grants were only available to people who lived or worked in one of the targeted communities. A 6-session training program was developed to guide community members in proposal development with 25 people attending at least 1 session. Six proposals were submitted for external peer-review. These proposals were scored according to the degree to which the proposed interventions benefited everyone in the community and engaged community members in the change process in a manner that was feasible within a 6-month timeframe. Submitted proposals focused on hunger and food security (n=2), exercise and wellness (1), computer literacy (2), and community advocacy and capacity-building (n=2). Three proposals were organized by community residents and 3 by faith-based organizations in the community. The awarded programs focused on hunger and food security, exercise and wellness, and community advocacy. The proposals selected for funding received up to $12,000 each to enact their interventions over a 6-month timeframe. In addition to the awarded programs, a community garden is being implemented in the targeted community. The four community-level, community-engaged interventions will be evaluated collectively using a quasi-experimental design to assess their ability to increase community participation among public housing residents.