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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Ingrid A. Brudenell, RN, PhD, Nursing, Boise State University, 1910 University Drive, Boise, ID 83725, 208-426-1670, ibruden@boisestate.edu

This presentation will focus on evaluation of community partnerships and lessons learned during the first years of an Outreach Project with multiple partners. Healthy Families Active Youth Rural Health Care Services Outreach Project is a federally funded school and family based intervention to promote healthy weight and activity levels in 3rd and 4 th grade children living in two rural Idaho communities. All Outreach Project partners are drawn from active participants in a community coalition of 15 organizations, Healthy Families Active Youth Partners, which began in 2003 to address childhood overweight. The coalition members were galvanized by initial needs data collected from children in a labor camp near Caldwell which placed Idaho rates well above the national rates. Continuing assessment data in 2005 from three elementary schools (n=519) report almost 40% of the children tested as overweight or at risk of overweight, compared with national data of overweight in children of 11% and 17% in Mexican American children. The high rates of childhood overweight are creating a sense of urgency to work together at a community and state level. Collaboration between representatives from organizations with different missions, visions and cultures through communication, conflict negotiation and shared decision making is needed. The effectiveness of interventions and partnerships supported by the grant will be evaluated by Boise State University, Department of Nursing faculty, using a multi-method process over a three year period. Qualitative and quantitative measures will be used to assess community partnerships and results used to guide strategies for developing and maintaining partnerships. Collaboration among coalition members is essential to the achievement of the project goals to promote childhood healthy weight and activity levels among school age children living in rural communities.

Learning Objectives: