Leveraging Academic-Community Engaged Scholarship with Citywide Health Assessment

Schools of Public Health and their community research partners often sit on the sidelines as local public health departments engage in critical Community Health Assessment (CHA) that inform Community Health Improvement Plans for the residents in the surrounding community. Academic-community partners engaging in Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR) exploring place-based health equity, can be productive partners in CHA. This session will relay the evolution and outcomes of a partnership of the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health (UIC SPH) as a member of  Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH)’s Partnership for Healthy Chicago who is responsible for the city's CHA, Healthy Chicago 2.0. Specific advantages include the integration of theoretical models and innovative research methodology, leveraging the creativity of graduate students, and, maximizing the involvement of students and community members as partners in the CHA process. The multidirectional stakeholder engagement that results positioned UIC SPH students as key partners by allowing them purposeful training and exposure to fieldwork and community-based practice through data collection and analysis. Session attendees will be able to describe the type of iterative, interactive community-based learning coupled with classroom instruction that created a process for students to explore community health as expressed directly by community members and gain a nuanced understanding of various constructions of health and well-being.   Results from this collaboration will be used to recommend a more inclusive, CHA model. Specifically, recommendations for updating the National Association of City and County Health Officers Mobilizing Action for Planning and Partnerships will be presented.