In the Greenpoint/Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY, community organizations are engaging in community-based participatory research (CBPR) by drawing on local knowledge about the unique hazards facing this working class community of color. The neighborhood’s different ethnic groups – Latinos, African-Americans, Hasidic Jews and Slavic Immigrants - - are using a range of strategies to understand the distribution of disease in the neighborhood and prescribe interventions. One community group, the Watchperson’s Office, is tapping the knowledge of high-school students and other community members to map local toxic hazards that do not appear in any database, and linking these maps on a GIS. Another organization, El Puente, is surveying the Latino population to better understand potential causes, triggers and intervention strategies to address asthma. In a third project, a number of local groups have partnered with the US EPA to provide key inputs for EPA’s first community-based cumulative exposure assessment. In this project, the groups have gathered information about diets derived of potentially toxic fish. This paper will show how multiple groups in one community are actively participating in CBPR and how different forms of local knowledge are essential for understanding and addressing the public health hazards in communities suffering from environmental injustice.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Environmental Justice, 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.