title: Engaging a chemical disaster community: lessons from Graniteville.
abstract: Community engagement remains a primary objective of public health practice. While this approach has been adopted with success in response to many community health issues, it is rarely adopted in chemical disaster response. Empirical research suggests that management of chemical disasters focuses on the emergency response with almost no community engagement for long-term recovery. Graniteville, an unincorporated and medically underserved community in South Carolina was the site of one of the largest chlorine exposures by a general US population. Following the immediate response, we sought community participation and partnered with community stakeholders and representatives in order to address community-identified health and environmental concerns. Subsequently, we engaged the community through regular town hall meetings, harnessing community capacity, forming coalitions with existing local assets like churches, schools, health centers, and businesses, and hosting community-wide events like health picnics and screenings. Information obtained from these events through discussions, interviews, and surveys facilitated focused public health service which eventually transitioned to community-driven public health research. Specific outcomes of the community engagement efforts and steps taken to ensure sustainability of these efforts and outcomes will be discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine, Satcher Health Leadership Institute, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30310, USA. wabara@msm.edu.
authors.forename: Winston
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Abara
authors.affiliation: Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. swilson2@umd.edu.
authors.forename: Sacoby
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425, USA. vena@musc.edu.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vena
authors.affiliation: Graniteville Community Coalition, Graniteville, SC 29829, USA. louwright@earthlink.net.
authors.forename: Louisiana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sanders
authors.affiliation: GRACE Study Center, Graniteville, SC 29829, USA. bevington1959@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Tina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bevington
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA. jculley@mailbox.sc.edu.
authors.forename: Joan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Culley
authors.affiliation: Department of Health promotion, Education, and Behavior, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA. lannang@mailbox.sc.edu.
authors.forename: Lucy
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Annang
authors.affiliation: Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dalemarre
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Environmental Health Sciences, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA. esvendse@tulane.edu.
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Svendsen
mesh_terms: D055884:Chemical Hazard Release; D019058:Community Networks; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research; D004189:Disaster Planning; D006801:Humans; D015980:Public Health Practice; D013022:South Carolina; D014481:United States