Seattle Partners for Healthy Communities (SP) is a collaboration of community agencies, community activists, public health professionals, and academics whose goal is to improve the health of urban, marginalized Seattle communities through community-based participatory research (CBPR). We have developed an infrastructure to support CBPR by establishing a Policy Board, a multi-disciplinary staff and an academic Technical Advisory Group. We follow explicit community-researcher collaboration principles. This presentation describes how we have used CBPR to address social determinants of health. We describe several projects, which emphasize community building and the development of social support and capital, and discuss issues in project implementation and evaluation from a CBPR perspective. Promoting Assets Across Cultures addresses a growing concern in public housing sites about increasing interethnic tensions. The project has developed multiethnic youth leadership teams and parent groups to promote healthy youth development, organize multiethnic community building projects, develop community competence and increase positive interethnic relations. The Rainier Beach Community Education Project is building neighborhood social capital and community by focusing on life-long, community-centered education. The Healthy Homes Project reduces children’s exposure to indoor air contaminants associated with asthma through a comprehensive package of interventions delivered by community health workers. It also documents substandard housing conditions associated with asthma to promote policies for improved housing. The Community Research Center provides technical assistance to community groups whose activities address social determinants of health. For example, we have worked with the Community Summer Grandparent Program, an inter-generational program building support and mutual respect between children and “grandparents.”
Learning Objectives: Participants will be able to: 1. Describe the social determinants of health models used by Seattle Partners. 2. Describe examples of public health interventions which address social determinants of health. 3. Describe how Seattle Partners has used CBPR to design, implement, evaluate and disseminate these interventions. 4. Describe the roles of community, public health and academia in addressing social determinants of health and conducting CBPR
Keywords: Community Building, Community Collaboration
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Our work is supported by a cooperative agreement from CDC and I receive partial salary support from the agreement.