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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Joel S. Meister, PhD, Professor and Jill De Zapien. Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, P.O. Box 210228, Tucson, AZ 85724, 520-318-7270, ext. 19, jmeister@u.arizona.edu

This presentation will examine innovative strategies to enhance the capacity of public health professionals, students and members of underserved communities to utilize advocacy strategies to effect policy and environmental change at local, state and national levels. Two case studies will be presented: a rural community coalition on the Navajo Nation and an urban community coalition of neighborhood associations addressing the needs of a primarily Latino population. Advocacy skill building and strategies were proposed and developed within the context of an Excellence in Partnerships for Community Outreach, Research on Health Disparities and Training (EXPORT) project grant from NIH to the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona. Two communities were selected in a process of inviting health disparate communities in Arizona to apply for participation and then assessing their current assets, level of interest and potential for collaboration, mobilization and change. Members of the selected communities initiated meetings with project staff, beginning with a retreat that brought together representatives of communities, the university project staff, and a group of graduate student fellows funded by Project Export. While focusing on diabetes and substance abuse as major health concerns, both communities had broader agendas for building community capacity to effect change. An emerging coalition model will be presented, in which public health professionals and community organizations build an advocacy agenda beyond the customary coalition agenda of networking, cooperation and collaboration that occurs in most community-based coalitions. Methods of evaluating such advocacy coalitions also will be presented.

Learning Objectives:

• Session particpants will learn to
•  Translate community-based participatory research into advocacy planning and action strategies.
•  Identify community concerns related to policy and environmental change.
•  Enhance the capacity of community coalitions to plan and implement advocacy strategies.

Keywords: Advocacy, Community Building

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation