Lori Miller Nascimento, MPH, Department of Family Medicine, Division of Community Health, University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine, 3716 South Hope Street, Suite 233, Los Angeles, CA 90007, (213)743-1589, lorimill@usc.edu, LaVonna Blair Lewis, PhD, MPH, Health Administration Program, University of Southern California, School of Policy, Planning and Development, Ralph and Goldy Lewis Hall 309, Los Angeles, CA, CA 90089-0626, Joyce Jones Guinyard, DC, REACH 2010 African Americans Building a Legacy of Health Project, Community Health Councils, Inc., 3741 Stocker Street, Ste. 208, Los Angeles, CA 90008, and Joseph Devall, Community Health Councils, Inc., REACH 2010 African Americans Building a Legacy of Health, 3741 Stocker Street, Ste. 208, Los Angeles, CA 90008.

Looking beyond sign-in sheets and budget by-lines, how can we really show organizational involvement in a CBPR project? How do we know if the project actually improves the target community’s capacity for reducing health disparities? This study looks at the role of organizations in the “target community”, their level of involvement with the project and indicators of change within their organizational environment. The evaluation team of the African Americans Building a Legacy of Health (AABLH) – REACH 2010 Project developed and implemented a survey to evaluate organizational capacity building within the AABLH target communities – South Los Angeles, East Inglewood and North Long Beach. The Project seeks to reduce rates of cardiovascular disease and diabetes among African Americans. To achieve this, numerous interventions have been implemented simultaneously to provide education and awareness, assess economic and environmental disparities regarding food and physical activity resources, and identify and address policy issues. The Capacity Building Survey was conducted from July through October, 2003 with representatives from 35 organizations based in the AABLH target communities. Organizational Representatives were asked about their level of participation with AABLH activities, the project’s impact on their organizational goals, practices, and expertise of participants. We also asked respondents about their experience with effective outreach methods and their suggestions to help AABLH involve additional community organizations. The presentation will provide insight on how the survey was used to evaluate organizational capacity building within a CBPR project, as will key findings from this study.

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