Public health professionals often take action on neighborhood-level issues such as violence, crime and substandard housing. Neighborhood associations also often address these public health issues, yet there is little collaboration between public health professionals and neighborhood associations. Neighborhood associations are an untapped resource in most public health efforts. One explanation for this lack of collaboration is that public health professionals are simply not familiar with the types of issues addressed by neighborhood associations or the characteristics and structure of these associations. The presenter of this session will discuss results from a study of neighborhood associations in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota examining the characteristics, public health priorities and actions of the associations. The presenter will discuss public health issues the associations identified as priorities, including crime, and general livability issues, as well as the issues that were less common such as teenage smoking and pregnancy. The presenter will also discuss factors influencing the variability of public health priorities across neighborhood associations, such as SES and size of the neighborhood, and budget and staff size of the association. Additional information will be provided on specific techniques that public health professionals can utilize to successfully collaborate with neighborhood associations.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants should be able to: 1) describe the basic structure and characteristics of neighborhood associations, 2) understand public health priorities of neighborhood associations and factors influencing these priorities, and 3) describe techniques on how to successfully collaborate with neighborhood associations
Keywords: Public Health Advocacy, Community Participation
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.