Capacity building for long-term community-academic health partnership outcomes.
Too often, populations experiencing the greatest burden of disease and disparities in health outcomes are left out of or ineffectively involved in academic-led efforts to address issues that impact them the most. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an approach increasingly being used to address these issues, but the science of CBPR is still viewed by many as a nascent field. Important to the development of the science of CBPR is documentation of the partnership process, particularly capacity building activities important to establishing the CBPR research infrastructure. This paper uses a CBPR Logic Model as a structure for documenting partnership capacity building activities of a long-term community-academic partnership addressing public health issues in Arkansas, U.S. Illustrative activities, programs, and experiences are described for each of the model's four constructs: context, group dynamics, interventions, and outcomes. Lessons learned through this process were: capacity building is required by both academic and community partners; shared activities provide a common base of experiences and expectations; and creating a common language facilitates dialogue about difficult issues. Development of community partnerships with one institutional unit promoted community engagement institution-wide, enhanced individual and partnership capacity, and increased opportunity to address priority issues.
Office of Community-Based Public Health, Fay W Boozman College of Public Health, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock.
M Kathryn
MK
Stewart
Office of Community-Based Public Health, Fay W Boozman College of Public Health, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock.
Holly C
HC
Felix
Tri County Rural Health Network, Helena-West Helena.
Naomi
N
Cottoms
Tri County Rural Health Network, Helena-West Helena.
Mary
M
Olson
Boys Girls Adults Community Development Center, Marvell.
Beatrice
B
Shelby
Mid-Delta Community Consortium, Helena-West Helena and.
Anna
A
Huff
Seven Harvest Training Center, Forrest City, Arkansas, United States of America.
Dianne
D
Colley
Office of Community-Based Public Health, Fay W Boozman College of Public Health, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock.
Carla
C
Sparks
Office of Community-Based Public Health, Fay W Boozman College of Public Health, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock.
Freeman
F
McKindra
Community-based participatory research; capacity building; partnerships