Consequent to an understanding of health disparities, health promotion/disease prevention and behavioral health theory, models and principles, the aim of this course is to equip students with knowledge and tools to conductresearch studies shaped and monitored with community involvement through collaborative relationships between academic programs in public health and the community.
The goal is to prepare students to enter the field of public health understanding determinants of community health and how to build the capacity of communities, health related agencies and academic centers to function as equal partners in community-based research, service, and education. Upon completion of this course students will be able to:
- Explain in writing the history of Northern and Southern traditions of Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR)
- Describe the CBPR principles in writing and give specific examples for each principle
- Identify community asset and need in collaboration with diverse community partners.
- Negotiate issues across community-academic groups.
- Demonstrate an understanding of social determinants of community health (economic, social, behavioral, political, and environmental).
- Apply principles of Community-Based Participatory Research including theoretical frameworks, models, and methods of planning, implementing, evaluating and disseminating findings from CBPR.
Step 1: Determine the scope of your inquiry
Each student chooses a topic related to a health disparity outcome, define the partnering community, and draft specific objectives that could be achieved during the timeframe of their project. Priorities will be given to the communities that are within the “Morgan Community Mile” area. The topic of the projects, definition of the community, and the objectives are due on Sep 5, 2017
Step 2: Assessment and Diagnosis
Each group conducts an extensive review of the literature and other documents in the topic area. This step includestwo sections:
The first section (community assessment) is a literature review using peer-reviewed research. Students must review and summarize at least 12 recent articles related to the topic from credible journals with high impact factors. The literature review should be informative and clarify the state of science as well as gaps and needs for further research related to the identified problem. Evaluate each article/source included in your review based on following criteria:
- Type of study design
- Sample population
- Researchers and affiliations
- Methods (data collection, measures, analysis)
- Key findings
The second section(community diagnosis) is about critical analysis of available sources of information with regards to the community and community stakeholders. Students must find relevant information that could be used to define the community such as size, geography, population, SES, ethnic profile, etc. They also need to identify and interview potential stakeholders such as organizations, associations, and programs that are related to group projects.
DELIVERABLE: The final productisa single space document entitled “Assessment and Diagnosis.” At the end of the document, a synopsis of the findings across all of the reviewed research should be made (“take home” message) so that anyone not reading the whole document would be provided with the essentials of the research. All of the sources and references should be cited using APA Style.