title: Applying Community Organizing Principles to Assess Health Needs in New Haven, Connecticut.
abstract: The Affordable Care Act added requirements for nonprofit hospitals to conduct community health needs assessments. Guidelines are minimal; however, they require input and representation from the broader community. This call echoes 2 decades of literature on the importance of including community members in all aspects of research design, a tenet of community organizing. We describe a community-engaged research approach to a community health needs assessment in New Haven, Connecticut. We demonstrate that a robust community organizing approach provided unique research benefits: access to residents for data collection, reliable data, leverage for community-driven interventions, and modest improvements in behavioral risk. We make recommendations for future community-engaged efforts and workforce development, which are important for responding to increasing calls for community health needs assessments.
authors.affiliation: At the time of the study, Alycia Santilli, Jeannette R. Ickovics, and Amy Carroll-Scott were with the Community Alliance for Research and Engagement, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT.
authors.forename: Alycia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Santilli
authors.affiliation: At the time of the study, Alycia Santilli, Jeannette R. Ickovics, and Amy Carroll-Scott were with the Community Alliance for Research and Engagement, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT.
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Carroll-Scott
authors.affiliation: At the time of the study, Alycia Santilli, Jeannette R. Ickovics, and Amy Carroll-Scott were with the Community Alliance for Research and Engagement, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT.
authors.forename: Jeannette R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Ickovics
mesh_terms: D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003237:Connecticut; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006304:Health Status; D006788:Hospitals, Voluntary / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D008297:Male; D020380:Needs Assessment / Q000458:organization & administration*; D058991:Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D011204:Poverty Areas; D011634:Public Health; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D066270:Social Capital; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States; D014495:Universities