Urban youths go 3000 miles: engaging and supporting young residents to conduct neighborhood asset mapping.
In 2009, CARE (Community Alliance for Research and Engagement at Yale University) launched a multisectoral chronic disease prevention initiative that conducts baseline data collection, interventions, and follow-up data collection to measure change. Data collection includes asset mapping to assess environmental determinants of chronic disease risk factors in neighborhoods and around schools. CARE hired 7 local high school students to conduct asset mapping; they walked more than 3000 miles and collected 492 data points. Employing youths as community health workers to collect data greatly enriched the community research process and offered many advantages. We were able to efficiently and effectively conduct scientifically rigorous mapping while gaining entry into some of New Haven's most research-wary and skeptical neighborhoods.
qCommunity Alliance for Research and Engagement, School of Public Health, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT 06510, USA. alycia.santilli@yale.edu
Alycia
A
Santilli
Amy
A
Carroll-Scott
Fiona
F
Wong
Jeannette
J
Ickovics
D000293:Adolescent; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003150:Community Health Workers; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003625:Data Collection; D006801:Humans; D020380:Needs Assessment; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013334:Students; D014505:Urban Population; D055815:Young Adult