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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

M. Kate Stewart, MD, MPH¹, S. Dianne Colley, MPH¹, Holly C. Felix, PhD¹, Anna M. Huff², Beatrice Clark Shelby³, Greg A. Davis³, T. Elaine Prewitt, DrPH¹, Beverly J. McCabe-Sellers, PhD, RD, LD⁴, Bonnie J. Bradley, MPH, RD, LD⁵, Karen H. Kim, PhD⁶, Margaret L. Bogle, PhD, RD⁴, and Dianne D. Sims⁷. (1) Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 4301 West Markham Street, Slot #820, Little Rock, AR 72205, 501-686-5820, sdc@uams.edu, (2) Mid-Delta Community Consortium, P. O. Box 2524, West Helena, AR 72390, (3) Boys, Girls, Adults Community Development Center, P. O. Box 1356, Marvell, AR 72366, (4) Delta Nurtrition Intervention Research Initiative, Agricultural Research Service, 900 South Shackleford Road, Little Rock, AR 72211, (5) Human Sciences, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Mail Slot 4971, 1200 North University Drive, Pine Bluff, AR 71601, (6) College of Public Health, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 4301 West Markham Street, Slot 820, Little Rock, AR 72205, (7) Phillips County Cooperative Extension Service, Box 684, Helena, AR 72342

In 1995, the USDA, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) launched the Delta Nutrition Intervention Research Initiative (Delta NIRI) to improve the nutrition and health of residents of the Lower Mississippi River Delta region of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Delta NIRI uses a community-based participatory research approach through a community-academic-ARS partnership in three communities to identify, develop, and conduct research interventions. Working together, the partnership identified a need to improve community capacity to be full partners in the research process and to improve researchers' understanding of community knowledge, perceptions and experience with research. Key needs voiced were: information about ethics of research, role of Institutional Review Boards, and importance of informed consent.

In response, Delta NIRI partnered with the Office of Community-Based Public Health of the UAMS College of Public Health to implement community workshops about research. The approach is to facilitate a co-learning process that builds capacity of all partners by serving as a forum for researchers and community citizens to discuss the following: What is research? What are the different types of research? How is research beneficial to individuals and communities? What has been the community's experience with research? What history of research is important for communities? What rules are in place to protect research participants? In addition to informing community partners about research, the methods used facilitate researchers in learning about community experiences with and perceptions of research. The presenter will describe workshop content, process and lessons learned in implementation. Supported by USDA, ARS #6251-53000-004-00D.

Learning Objectives: