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review case study.

1.Describe the target population

2.describe why the case is CBPR-Community Base Participatory Research?

3.what are Needs Assessment/Asset Mapping in the case

4.Problem Defintion

5. Approach to addressing the key issue of concern

6. CDC Community Engagement Continuum

7. What stage of the continuum did the research team end on

8. Identify any stakeholders, gatekeepers, allies

9. Sustainability with respect to community engagement and health promotion

Promoting Healthy Public Policy through
Community-Based Participatory Research:

Ten Case Studies

Design by: Leslie Yang

PHOTOS COURTESY OF: p.16 WE ACT, Inc.; p.19 Steve Wing; p.22 Disability Studies Doctoral Program,
University of Illinois, Chicago; p.25 Victoria Brechwich Vasquez; p.28 Literacy for Environmental Justice; p.32
Tribal Efforts Against Lead; p.35 Community Coalition; p.38 Healthy Communities of Henry County; p.41
Youth Link; p.44 ©iStockphoto.com (Jesse Karjalainen)

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Promoting Healthy Public Policy through
Community-Based Participatory Research:

Ten Case Studies

A project of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health
and PolicyLink, funded by a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation

UC Berkeley School of Public Health Team

Meredith Minkler
Victoria Breckwich Vásquez
Charlotte Chang
Jenesse Miller

PolicyLink Team

Victor Rubin
Angela Glover Blackwell
Mildred Thompson
Rebecca Flournoy
Judith Bell

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We gratefully acknowledge the many community
and academic/health department partners and
policymakers whose willingness to share their
knowledge and insights made this study possible.
We also are very grateful to researchers Dana
Petersen, Andrea Corage Baden, and Shelley
Facente, members of the study’s national
Community Advisory Board, for their many
contributions, and to transcriptionist Marti Perry
and research assistant Angela Ni. We also owe a
great debt to PolicyLink staff members Milly Hawk
Daniel, Leslie Yang, Fran Smith, and Heather Tamir,
and to Paulette Jones Robinson for their superb
help with editing, design, and production of the
fi nal manuscript.

This research was made possible by funding from
the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. We gratefully
acknowledge the foundation, whose long-standing
commitments to improving the public’s health—
through community-based participatory research—
and to increasing the pool of diverse faculty and
public health leaders trained in this area through the
Community Track of its postdoctoral Kellogg Health
Scholars Program —have contributed mightily and
signifi cantly. We are grateful in particular to
program staff Barbara Sabol and former program
staff Tamra Fountaine-Jones for their belief in and
support of this project.

Acknowledgments

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Acknowledgments 2

Preface

Case Study Projects and Partnerships

Executive Summary

Table 1. Sample Policy and Related Outcomes in which the
Partnerships Appear to Have Played a Substantial Role

Introduction

Ten Case Studies of Community-Based Participatory Research and
Their Policy Efforts and Outcomes

Addressing diesel bus pollution and its health consequences
in Northern Manhattan, New York: West Harlem Environmental Action,
Inc., and the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health 16

Tackling environmental injustice in industrialized hog production in
rural North Carolina: Concerned Citizens of Tillery and its partnership
with the University of North Carolina, School of Public Health 1

Moving out of the nursing home and into the community:
The Departments of Disability and Rehabilitation at the University
of Illinois – Chicago, Access Living, and the Progress Center for
Independent Living

Using “data judo,” community organizing, and policy advocacy
on the regional level: Southern California Environmental Justice
Collaborative

Addressing food insecurity in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Point:
The Literacy for Environmental Justice Partnership 2

Preventing lead exposure among children in Tar Creek, Oklahoma:
Tribal Efforts against Lead

Improving school conditions by changing public policy in South
Los Angeles: The Community Coalition Partnership

Making the healthy choice the easy choice: A Healthy Communities
CBPR Partnership in New Castle, Indiana

Empowering New Mexico’s young people in public policymaking:
Youth Link and Masters in Public Health Program, University of
New Mexico

Table of Contents

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Reintegrating drug users leaving jail and prison: Harlem Community
and Academic Partnership

Contributions of CBPR Partnerships to Promoting Healthy Public
Policy: What Can (and Can’t) We Conclude?

Table 2. Sample Policy and Related Outcomes in which the
Partnerships Appear to Have Played a Substantial Role

Success Factors and Challenges Faced Across Sites

Recommendations

References Cited

Appendix A: Project Staff and National Advisory Board Members

Appendix B: Study Methods and Analysis

Appendix C: List of Project Publications

Appendix D: Web and Other Resources

Table 3. CBPR Partnership Summaries 66

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5

This report is the product of a collaboration between
the School of Public Health at the University of
California, Berkeley, and PolicyLink, a national
research and action institute advancing economic
and social equity by Lifting Up What Works.®

With its commitment to evidence-based research,
diversity, community partnerships, and moving
from “publication to public action,” the School
shares with PolicyLink a deep interest in ensuring
that the fi ndings of scholarly research are translated
and used in ways that can promote the public’s
health and well-being. Increasingly, however, we in
academia are realizing that for some of the most
complex and challenging public health problems
we face, simply translating fi ndings after the fact
is not enough. Rather, research is needed that is
community based rather than simply community
placed and in which community members and other
stakeholders are actively involved with formally
trained researchers in studying and addressing
health and social problems and promoting equity.

In the pages that follow, we share 10 case studies
of diverse community-based participatory research
(CBPR) partnerships around the United States that
have in common a commitment to foster healthy
public policy. The 10 partnerships examined—in
areas as diverse as South Los Angeles, California;

New Castle, Indiana; Harlem, New York; and
Tillery, North Carolina—were selected from among
more than 75 CBPR projects originally considered
by our staff and advisory committee members.
The projects deal with topics that range from
environmental justice and food insecurity to
disability rights and the desire for “small p” policies
that “make the healthy choice the easy choice.”

Together, these case studies offer a window into
the world of community, health department, and
academic partnerships throughout the nation
that are working to change policy to improve
community health, reduce disparities, and foster
equity. This report draws on data from dozens of
in-depth interviews with partnership members,
community focus groups, and policymakers,
as well as document review and participant
observation. We hope these stories and the lessons
they provide will contribute to the evidence base
and further understanding of CBPR’s promise
as a tool for promoting healthy public policy.

Meredith Minkler Angela Glover Blackwell

Preface

6
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Addressing diesel bus pollution and its health consequences in Northern Manhattan, New York: West Harlem
Environmental Action, Inc., and the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health

Tackling environmental injustice in industrialized hog production in rural North Carolina: Concerned Citizens
of Tillery and its partnership with the School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Moving out of the nursing home and into the community: Promoting systems change through a partnership
among the Progress Center for Independent Living, Access Living, and the Departments of Disability Studies
and Rehabilitation at the University of Illinois, Chicago

Using “data judo,” community organizing, and policy advocacy on the regional level through the Southern
California Environmental Justice Collaborative: A partnership among Communities for a Better Environment;
the University of California-Santa Cruz; Occidental College; Brown University; and the Liberty Hill Foundation

Addressing food insecurity in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Point: Literacy for Environmental Justice and its
partnership with the San Francisco Department of Public Health

Preventing lead exposure among children in Tar Creek, Oklahoma through Tribal Efforts against Lead
(TEAL): A partnership among eight tribes, the University of Oklahoma, Emory University, and the University
of New Mexico

Improving school conditions by changing public policy in South Los Angeles: The Community Coalition,
Imoyase Research Group, and the Department of Psychology at Loyola Marymount University

Making the healthy choice the easy choice: A partnership between Healthy Communities of Henry County
and the School of Nursing, Indiana University

Empowering New Mexico’s young people in public policymaking: Youth Link and the University of New
Mexico Masters in Public Health Program

Reintegrating drug users leaving jail and prison: The Center for Urban Epidemiological Studies/Harlem
Community and Academic Partnership and the Community Reintegration Network

Case Study Projects and Partnerships

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Community-based participatory research, or CBPR,
is increasingly recognized as a potent approach
to conducting research with—rather than on—
communities. CBPR builds capacity at the same
time that it collaboratively studies locally relevant
issues and concerns. As defi ned by the Kellogg
Foundation’s Community Health Scholars Program,
CBPR is “a collaborative process that equitably
involves all partners in the research process and
recognizes the unique strengths that each brings.
CBPR begins with a research topic of importance
to the community with the aim of combining
knowledge and action for social change to improve
community health and eliminate health disparities.”

A hallmark of CBPR—one that sets it apart
from more traditional research paradigms—is its
commitment to action as part of the research
process, not leaving follow-up to others after
studies have been completed. Yet to date, little
research has been conducted on the policy
efforts and impacts of CBPR in the United
States. This monograph is the result of the fi rst
known systematic effort to explore the effects
and outcomes of CBPR on health-promoting
public policy. The study was funded by the W. K.
Kellogg Foundation and took place from 2003 to
2005, with subsequent follow-up as needed.

Faculty and graduate students at the UC Berkeley
School of Public Health and their partners at
PolicyLink, assisted by a national advisory committee
(see Appendix A), critically reviewed the published
CBPR case studies in the United States that appeared
to have had an impact on health-promoting public
policy or that showed promise for doing so in the
near future. Just 27 of the nearly 80 cases reviewed
met criteria for CBPR (e.g., being participatory
and empowering; fostering co-learning, capacity-
building, and systems change; and balancing
research and action) while also having a strong and
demonstrated policy focus. The 10 case studies
described and analyzed in these pages both provide
impressive evidence of the potential of CBPR to
help promote change on the policy or systems level,
and capture the range and diversity of the cases
examined. A multimethod case study approach was
used to examine each of these partnership projects

in depth and to conduct a cross-site analysis that
would identify key themes, challenges, success
factors, and lessons learned across the sites.

Diversity in Partnership Structure
and Research Methods

The 10 CBPR partnerships we explored involved
strong community-based organizations that
typically were collaborating with university partners.
However, in a few instances (e.g., the Literacy for
Environmental Justice partnership in San Francisco),
the outside research partners were based in non-
academic settings, such as health departments or
in a nonprofi t research and evaluation group. The
research methods used varied considerably, ranging
from spatial analysis to secondary data analysis
utilizing large government data sets to the collection
of primary data through surveys, interviews, or focus
groups. The creative use of newer technologies
and approaches, such as Photovoice and store-
shelf diagramming, also was demonstrated. Most
of the research projects used multiple methods
of data collection to capture the range of data
needed to understand multiple aspects of a complex
problem at hand and potential policy solutions.

Getting to Action

The partnerships displayed substantial differences in
their approaches to the policy process and indeed,
sometimes preferred not to use the term “policy”
in reference to their work. Yet we also observed
important similarities. As noted below, for example,
most partnerships appeared adept at identifying or
refi ning a problem of shared concern, determining
how their research fi ndings could be used to
address the problem on a broader level, identifying
potential targets and policy change approaches, and
working with allies (including policymakers) to move
forward. We also observed frequent and effective
use of media advocacy; participation in public
hearings and meetings with key decision makers;
and a commitment to continued engagement,
sometimes well beyond a funded project period.

Executive Summary

8
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Policy- and Systems-Level
Impact and the Diffi culty of
Analyzing Contributions

Each of the 10 case studies appears to have
contributed to policy- or systems-level change, and
not infrequently, several policy-related changes
appear to have resulted at least in part from the
work of the CBPR partnerships. These achievements
ranged from achieving a 75 percent reduction in
allowable cancer risk from toxic emissions in South
Los Angeles to reinstating Medicaid for prisoners
in New York immediately after their release—and
helping to ensure their release during daylight
rather than at 3:00 a.m. Some victories were
subtler, such as effecting “small p” policy changes
designed to promote a healthy community in New
Castle, Indiana, and the surrounding Henry County.
Healthy Communities of Henry County leveraged
its CBPR study results with years of follow-up work
to secure substantial funding and widespread
support for creating a web of walking and biking
trails that would connect key points of interest
in this sprawling rural community and promote
physical fi tness and environmental improvements.

Changes in the policy environment, including a
change in the economy; the opening of a window
of opportunity in the wake of a natural disaster
or media exposé; or the election or appointment
of a new policymaker or other key decision maker
who shares the partnership’s goals may greatly
affect the likelihood of a policy victory. Additionally,
the very nature of CBPR work, with its emphasis
on building alliances and frequently working in
coalition with numerous actors and stakeholders,
makes singling out the role of the community,
academic, or health department partnerships
in helping to achieve a policy victory all but
impossible. Although we have attempted in this
monograph to highlight the ways in which CBPR
partnerships appeared to contribute to one or more
policy or systems changes, we do so cautiously,
underscoring in each case that we are analyzing
connections and contributions, and not attributing
contributions to the partnership’s efforts alone.

Our task in this regard was sometimes made
more diffi cult by challenges faced in studying
the partnership’s potential contributions to policy
change efforts. Among these challenges was the
reluctance of some of those involved in partnerships
to talk about their potential policy-level work, since
federal or other funding was seen as precluding
this type of work due to funding restrictions on
lobbying. The media’s tendency to single out one
contributor (often a politician), together with
the potential for over- (or under-) stating the
partnership’s role or give credit to a policymaker
ally, further compounded the diffi culty of analyzing
contribution. Despite these diffi culties, our multi-
method investigation allowed us to conclude
with some confi dence that efforts highlighted
by the 10 CBPR case studies did indeed play a
substantial role in helping to promote healthy
public policy or other systems-level change.

Success Factors across Sites

Many factors contributing to the success of
these case studies were context-specifi c and
unique to a particular project and partnership.
At the same time, several factors emerged in
our cross-site analysis as facilitators of effective
functioning and outcomes. These include:

The presence of a strong, autonomous •
community partner organization prior to
the development of the partnership

A high level of mutual respect and trust •
among the partners and an appreciation
of the complementary skills and
resources that each partner brought

Appreciation by all partners of the need •
for solid scientifi c data as a prerequisite
for making the case for policy action

Commitment to “doing your homework”—•
fi nding out what other communities
have done, who holds decision-making
authority, key leverage points, etc.

Facility for and commitment to building strong •
collaborations and alliances with diverse
stakeholders beyond the formal partnership

“Public offi ce, in my opinion, doesn’t work, won’t work, unless there are really strong grassroots organizations to pressure
elected offi cials. That holds for me too because my plate is so full. I’m only one person. The community [has to] help keep me
focused.” —Policymaker

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Knowledge of and facility for attending to a •
variety of “steps” in the policy process, whether
or not the language of policy was spoken

The last point, in particular, is worthy of note.
Although many partnerships acknowledged
that they needed to learn much more about the
policymaking process, each also appeared to have an
innate or a learned sense of many necessary policy
steps, from reframing issues and policy goals to
identifying policy targets, fi nding and using windows
of opportunity, and effectively using the media
to carry their message and pressure for change.

Challenges Faced across Sites

Each partnership faced challenges grounded in the
historical, political, economic, and interpersonal
realities surrounding their research, organizing,
and policy work. These challenges ranged from the
strong opposition of powerful corporate interests
(e.g., the hog industry in North Carolina and the
nursing home lobby in Chicago) to problems posed
by high staff turnover and severe funding cutbacks
in mid-project (Harlem Community and Academic
Partnership and Youth Link). The partnerships
also encountered several common challenges:

Differences in the research timetable of •
the community and academic partners,
with the former often eager for quicker
data analysis and release of fi ndings in the
interests of using them to promote change

Different perspectives on policy work held by •
academic/health department and community
partners, with the latter often more clear
from the outset about the policy goals
and objectives they wished to achieve

Funding constraints and/or termination of •
funding or changes in sources of project
support, which in turn delayed or changed
the emphasis of research and action

Perceptions among partnership •
members that they lacked suffi cient
understanding of policymaking processes
and avenues for systems change

Diffi culty talking in terms of policy goals •
and activities because of real or perceived
prohibitions and constraints due to tax-
exempt status or funder concerns

Diffi culty measuring the longer-term •
impacts of project or policy change: who
follows up when the money runs out?

Recommendations

Each of the partnerships included in this study
was selected in part because of its perceived role
in contributing to health-promoting public policy
and health equity. Based on their experiences and
shared concerns, the following recommendations
are offered to other CBPR partnerships
interested in adding a policy component to
their work or increasing their effectiveness
in policy-focused research and advocacy:

Build leadership and base of support •
for research and action by being
genuinely community driven:.Start where
the people are by having the community
partner and its base determine the “hot-
button issue” to be studied—an issue
the community partner is committed to
help research and mobilize around.

Use a mix of research methods: • People’s
stories (captured in qualitative data) as
well as the facts and statistics that emerge
from quantitative approaches are needed
to move policymakers and reach the
media. Different forms of data also may
be needed to reach different audiences.

Produce high-quality research that can •
stand up to careful scrutiny, but make
results easily accessible and highlight
their policy relevance: Policy briefs, short
reports and “talking points,” and liberal
use of pie charts and other graphics to help
translate the fi ndings will help policymakers
and the media, as will “quotable quotes”
from your interviews and other data sources.

Use approaches and processes that •
refl ect the local community culture

“There is an unholy matrimony between science and activism.” —Academic Partner

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and ways of doing things (even
if it slows down the process).

Remember that research includes not only •
the partnership’s original investigation
but also subsequent study of the policy
considerations involved: Community partners
should be helped to research whether the policy
level is the best route for achieving the change
they seek; who has the power to make the
change(s) being sought; what sorts of policy-
relevant data need to be collected, from whom
and how (this is all part of “data collection”).

Make sure all partners, including academics, •
understand that advocacy is different from
“lobbying”: Gain an understanding of the
different types of advocacy activities allowed of
nonprofi t organizations, including universities
and community organizations; the activities are
often more plentiful than partners believe.

Decide on a policy goal and identify •
the relevant policy targets and change
strategies, but always have at least one
“Plan B” and be open to compromise.

Build strong linkages with organizational •
allies and other stakeholders, but be
strategic in your choice of partners: In policy
work, as in community organizing, there are
“no permanent enemies, no permanent allies.”

Through trainings, Web-based tools (see •
Appendix D), and other resources, increase
partners’ understanding of policymaking
and, as appropriate, of legal processes and
issues. If possible, link early on with a “policy
mentor” willing and able to help partners,
including academic partners, to understand
and better navigate the policy process.

Offer solutions to policymakers and •
decision makers, not just complaints: Have
relevant research readily available to show

them why your solution is on target, practical,
and affordable; include in your research some
information on the “wallet angle” to show the
cost effectiveness of your proposed solution;
and provide them with the community support
they need to advocate for change—e.g., helping
to ensure strong community turnout at city
council meetings, hearings, and other venues.

Plan for sustainability by seeking new •
funding streams, including those (e.g.,
some foundations) that actively support
and encourage community-partnered
research and action at the policy level,
directed at promoting health equity.

Take advantage of the university or •
health department partner’s media offi ce:
It can help draft and widely disseminate
press releases. Make sure that community
partners participate in decisions about
content and timely use of such media, and
that any media advocacy is a well-thought-
out part of a bigger plan and campaign.

Recognize that policy change takes a long •
time, and commit to staying involved over
the long haul: Achieving policy change (and
ensuring that a new measure or policy is in fact
implemented) is likely to mean developing and
implementing several strategies and working
well beyond any funded grant period.

Finally, and beyond these recommendations to
CBPR partnerships themselves, increasing the
ability of such partnerships to help promote
policy-level changes will require increased
institutional support from foundations and the
federal government. This funding must target
CBPR partnerships focused on promoting healthy
public policy and systems change to improve the
public’s health by promoting health equity.

CBPR is “ … a collaborative process that equitably involves all partners in the research process and recognizes the unique strengths that
each brings. CBPR begins with a research topic of importance to the community with the aim of combining knowledge and action for
social change to improve community health and eliminate health disparities.” —Community Health Scholars Program, 2001

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West Harlem Environmental Action (WE ACT)/
Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health

Conversion of New York City bus fl eet to clean diesel•

Establishment by the Environmental Protection •
Agency (EPA) of permanent air monitoring in Harlem
and other “hot spots” locally and nationally

Co-authoring and adoption of a statewide •
environmental justice policy

Concerned Citizens of Tillery/University of
North Carolina School of Public Health

Creation of the North Carolina Environmental Justice •
Network (NCEJN), which in turn helped re-invigorate
a statewide environmental justice movement

Through the NCEJN and drawing on study •
fi ndings, passage and signing of a law in 2007
banning new hog facilities in the state and
setting higher standards for waste treatment

Progress Center for Independent Living/Access
Living/Departments of Disability Studies and
Rehabilitation, University of Illinois, Chicago

Passage of legislation and funding for a Senior •
Community Reintegration Program

State reauthorization of a council to reassess the •
implementation of the Olmstead Act and to prepare
a strategic plan for long-term care fi nancing

“Money follows the person” program provision •
funded in 2007 through a $55.7 million
Phase I grant from the Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid to the State of Illinois

The Southern California Environmental
Justice Collaborative (South Los Angeles)

Revision of a regulation (Rule 1402) that tightened •
emission standards and lowered acceptable cancer
risk levels from existing facilities by 75 percent

Changing of policy language used by the California •
Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA)

from individual to cumulative risk exposure

Spearheading an organized environmental •
justice movement in Southern California

Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ)/San
Francisco Department of Public Health

Adoption by several city agencies of a voluntary •
policy creating the Good Neighbor Program to
provide incentives for corner stores that increase
access to healthy foods and decrease shelf
space for alcohol and tobacco products (four
stores had become “good neighbors” by 2007,
with fi ve more slated to do so in 2008–09)

Passage and signing of AB 2384 in 2006, modeled •
on the Good Neighbor Program (albeit without
funding appropriation), to establish a statewide
Healthy Food Purchase pilot program to improve the
supply of healthy choices in small corner stores

Tribal Efforts against Lead (TEAL)/Partnership among
eight local tribes with the University of Oklahoma,
Emory University, and the University of New Mexico

Full implementation of blood lead screening and •
parental notifi cation for young children by the Ottawa
County Health Department and the Indian Health Service

Halting the use of mine tailings in construction •
and on roads without proper containment

The Community Coalition /Imoyase Research
Group/Loyola Marymount University

Reopening by the Los Angeles Unifi ed School District •
(LAUSD) of repair and construction contracts granted
by a $2.4 billion school bond (Proposition BB), resulting
in redirection of $100 million in school bond monies
from wealthier schools to those in South Los Angeles

Allocation of $153 million in new funds for •
additional schools in South Los Angeles and other
inner-city communities.

Successful lawsuit resulting in $750 million for new •
school construction

Table 1. Sample Policy and Related Outcomes in which the
Partnerships Appear to Have Played a Substantial Role*

continued on next page

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Indiana University School of Nursing/Healthy
Communities of Henry County (HCHC)

Passage and implementation of a bill restricting •
indoor smoking in public places

Securing local government funding and support •
for a large new playground on public land that
was then built by community members

Securing government funding and approvals for an •
initiative to develop a network of trails throughout the
county, promoting physical activity and cleaner air

Youth Link/University of New Mexico/New
Mexico Department of Health (DOH)

Passage by state legislature of a study bill •
(called a memorial) requesting the investigation
of suspension and expulsion policies and their
effects on high-school dropout rates

City support and funding for a skate •
park in Las Cruces, New Mexico

Passage of a citywide smoke-free ordinance •
in Albuquerque and restrictions on tobacco

product placement in Santa Fe, and ultimately
passage of a statewide ban on smoking in
indoor workplaces and public spaces

Harlem Community and Academic Partnership

Passage of a bill by the New York State Legislature •
that reinstated Medicaid benefi ts to inmates
upon their release, replacing a policy that
terminated benefi ts upon incarceration

Passage by the New York City Council of •
Local Law 54 mandating the Department of
Correction to provide expanded discharge
planning services to people leaving jail

Department of Correction decision to begin •
releasing many more inmates during daylight
hours rather than after midnight

__________
*Please note that none of these victories was
attributed solely to the partnerships.

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The complexity of many of today’s health and
social problems—environmental injustice, obesity,
HIV/AIDS, and pronounced racial/ethnic health
disparities—often renders them poorly suited to
traditional academically driven research and the
sometimes disappointing intervention programs it
spawns (1). Increasingly, too, there is a realization
that to effect change, research in public health
and related fi elds must be policy relevant. The fi eld
needs to move as researchers work with (rather than
on) communities to study and address their issues
and concerns, and collaboratively use the fi ndings
to infl uence policy and promote health equity.
Community-based participatory research (CBPR)
is the overarching name for a variety of research
approaches that have as their centerpiece the three
interrelated elements of community participation,
research, and action (including sometimes
policy-level action), to translate the fi ndings of
collaborative research in ways that improve health
and help eliminate health disparities (1, 2).

Drawing on earlier seminal work (3, 4), the
W. K. Kellogg Foundation’s Community
Health Scholars Program defi nes CBPR as

“ … a collaborative process that equitably involves
all partners in the research process and recognizes
the unique strengths that each brings. CBPR
begins with a research topic of importance to the
community with the aim of combining knowledge
and action for social change to improve community
health and eliminate health disparities.”(5)

As suggested, a distinguishing feature of CBPR is
its commitment to action as part of the research
process—not something others do after the fact
(1). Partnerships are typically formed with the
close collaboration of a community partner (i.e.,
a community-based organization or group of
community leaders/activists), an academic partner
(i.e., researchers affi liated with a university), and/or
professionals in a health department, a healthcare
practice, or other such setting. Together, these
partners decide on a research topic of interest
to the community, collaboratively engage in the
research, and ultimately use the research fi ndings
to inform program or policy-related change to
improve community health and promote equity.
By focusing on policy change as a potential
action component, CBPR can have the potential
for improving the health of large numbers of

Introduction

Principles of CBPR

CPBR recognizes community as a unit of identity. 1.

CBPR builds on strengths and resources within the community.2.

CBPR facilitates collaborative, equitable partnership in all phases of the research.3.

CBPR promotes co-learning and capacity building among all partners.4.

CBPR integrates and achieves a balance between research and action for the mutual benefi t of all partners.5.

CBPR emphasizes local relevance of public health problems and ecological perspectives 6.
that recognize and attend to the multiple determinants of health and disease.

CBPR involves systems development through a cyclical and an iterative process.7.

CBPR disseminates fi ndings and knowledge gained to all partners and 8.
involves all partners in the dissemination process.

CBPR involves a long-term process and commitment. 9.

(Source: Israel et al. 1998)

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people, possibly having a major impact at the
level of the city, region, state, or beyond.

CBPR partnerships have the potential for policy
change through their structure and multiple
functions. The policy tools of participatory decision
making, education, and information dissemination
fi t well with CBPR principles. Other ways in which
CBPR’s structure and functions improve the potential
for policymaking and change efforts have been
outlined in a nationally distributed toolkit (6)
generated by Community-Campus Partnerships
for Health, an organization promoting effective
“town-and-gown” collaborations throughout
the United States. CBPR partnerships are typically
composed of diverse partners and commonly
refl ect and manage multiple perspectives. Related
features of CBPR partnerships are that they
depend upon alliance building, involve members
in participatory activities that enhance democratic
decision making, and represent both research
and community constituencies—all of which
enhance the success of policymaking endeavors.

Little attention has focused to date on how CBPR
partnerships may inform public policy at the local,
regional, state, or national level. With a few notable
exceptions (6, 7, 8), there is little guidance for
those interested in leveraging CBPR at the policy
level. This missed opportunity is due in part to the
lack of a clear evidence base that demonstrates

the policy impacts of CBPR. Although many CBPR
studies now are reported in the literature, few
appear directed at effecting broader level change.
Those studies of CBPR partnerships that have
had a focus on policy, moreover, tend neither
to discuss their efforts in this regard nor to use
a systematic approach in helping the reader
understand what was accomplished and how.

This research project was designed to address
this gap in the research on CBPR and its impact
on public policy. We undertook a multisite case
study analysis of partnerships that met the criteria
for engaging in CBPR and also showed promise
for infl uencing the development of healthy
public policy through their collaborative efforts.
Our goal was to demonstrate the utility of CBPR
and share the successes and the challenges
involved to help inform other CBPR partnerships’
public health and community development
policy processes to promote health equity.

Nearly 80 potential partnerships were considered
for this analysis, and the fi nal sample included a
diverse group of 10 partnerships from around the
country that demonstrated outstanding process
and effectiveness in using CBPR to promote healthy
public policy. Criteria for inclusion in the fi nal sample
were that the partnership appeared to live up to
the principles of CBPR, have impacted on health-
promoting public policy, or showed promise for

Criteria for Inclusion in the Study

Demonstrated excellence in CBPR process, living up to the core principles of CBPR practice•

Appeared to have impacted on health-promoting public policy or showed •
promise for contributing to policy change in the near future

Brought diversity in terms of the range and scope of geography; racial/ethnic •
composition; topic areas of concern; and research methods employed

Demonstrated a clear commitment to improving the public’s health and promoting health equity •

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contributing to policy change in the near future.
An attempt also was made to select partnerships
that would capture the range and scope of CBPR
efforts aimed at improving the public’s health
and promoting health equity through policy level
action. As described in Appendix B, one or more
research staff visited each partnership site. Visits
included: interviews with community partner(s),
academic partner(s), health department partner(s) (if
applicable); focus groups with community partners
and youth (if the partnership represented a youth-
involved site); observation of partnership meetings
and related events; and review of site-specifi c
written materials related to partnership structure,
history, and policy endeavors. Two or three research
team members independently reviewed interview

and focus group transcripts, and analysis based
on fi ndings was conducted using the qualitative
software program ATLAS.ti (9). Finally, cross-
site thematic analysis was conducted to explore
common fi ndings, success factors, and barriers.
In the pages that follow, we profi le each CBPR
partnership, briefl y describing its structure
and evolution, research aims, methods and
fi ndings, and policy advocacy efforts and
outcomes. We highlight the challenges faced
by the partnerships and the factors that appear
to contribute to their success. Major themes
across all partnerships are presented, along with
recommendations for other groups interested in
using CBPR to identify, study, and address shared
problems by promoting healthy public policy.

FROM WE ACT, NEW YORK
“Sometimes as scientists we make assumptions … community people, because they are looking at it from a fresh perspective, will

question the assumptions in a way that actually improves the science. It may tailor things to the situation in a way we would not
have thought of.” —Academic Partner

FROM COMMUNITY COALITION, LOS ANGELES
“For us to go down there and protest and talk to people . . . the Community Coalition showed me I can make a difference around

my neighborhood.” — Community Youth

FROM CHICAGO
“The town hall forums have educated, motivated, and involved hundreds of people with disabilities and provided them with the

necessary tools to advocate for full inclusion and opportunity for all.” —Policymaker

16
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Case Study #1:

Addressing diesel bus pollution
and its health consequences in
Northern Manhattan, New York:
West Harlem Environmental Action,
Inc., and the Columbia Center for
Children’s Environmental Health

Asthma morbidity and mortality rates in the
Northern Manhattan neighborhoods of Harlem and
Washington Heights are among the highest in the
nation, with one in four children in Central Harlem
suffering from this disease (1). With its rich cultural
history, Northern Manhattan is home to about
1.5 million mostly low-income African American

and Latino residents. This densely populated
7.4-square-mile area also housed six of the city’s
eight diesel bus depots and 650 Port Authority
buses when this project began. Residents had
long believed that the diesel bus problem played a
signifi cant role in their high asthma rates (2–4).
Their fears were well-founded. Diesel engines
emit 30 to 100 times more particles than gasoline
engines that have emission control devices (5);
research has shown a signifi cant association
between high levels of diesel exhaust and
elevated rates of respiratory ailments and asthma
(5, 6). These studies also show that the largest
contributor to area pollution is excessive bus idling
in lots and in the streets around bus depots.

The Partnership: In 1996, West Harlem
Environmental Action (WE ACT), a nonprofi t
organization that uses community-based action to
advance environmental health policy, public health,
and quality of life, formed a partnership with the
Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental
Health (CCCEH) at the Mailman School of Public
Health, Columbia University, to explore the
possibility of excess pollution exposure in Northern
Manhattan (2, 3) and to craft appropriate policy
responses to their fi ndings. The partnership was
funded by an initial environmental justice grant
from the National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences (NIEHS) and has continued to receive
funding from this source and others, with some
of the more recent grant support directed to WE
ACT as the lead agency. This powerful community-
academic collaboration has continued more than
a dozen years, deepening its focus on air pollution
as well as taking on additional areas of shared
concern in the broad arena of place and health (3).

Research Methods: In the mid-1990s, the WE ACT
partnership undertook detailed GIS mapping that
graphically portrayed the disproportionate burden
of asthma hospitalizations in Northern Manhattan,
as well as the location of bus depots and other

Ten Case Studies of Community-Based
Participatory Research and Their
Policy Efforts and Outcomes

PolicyLink

emission sources in relation to the public schools,
hospitals, and other key sites. The signature aspect
of the partnership’s research, though, involved
training high-school-aged youth to participate in
investigations of exposure rates to fi ne particulate
matter (PM2.5) commonly found in vehicle exhaust.
In July 1996, WE ACT staff and summer interns
(called “Earth Crew”) identifi ed neighborhood
“hot spots” near the depots where vehicular and
pedestrian traffi c were particularly heavy, as well
as possible confounders such as indoor smoking.
The partnership’s epidemiologist then trained
the youth to do traffi c and pedestrian counts in
these areas and to calibrate and use backpack
air monitors to test their personal exposures.
CCCEH staff also used ambient air monitors in
these locations to gather additional data (2, 7).

Findings: The study found that variations in
concentration of fi ne particulate matter appeared
to be related to the magnitude of local diesel
sources. This reinforced community concerns
about the disproportionate burden of diesel
traffi c and bus depots in Harlem. Results also
showed that PM2.5 concentrations ranged from
22 to 69 µg/m3 in eight hours (7)—well above the
Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) safety
threshold, which at the time was 15.1 µg/m.3 (7)

Getting to Action: WE ACT helped raise broad
public awareness of the high exposure rates through
a multilevel educational and advocacy campaign
featuring the tag line, “If you live uptown, breathe
at your own risk.” The organization also experienced
a deliberate planning process. In the words of
a key community partner, “We would literally
unfold charts of paper and start mapping the key
actors: who is responsible for decision making,
who is making policy, and what is the policy? …
How does it play out in terms of impacting our
community, our organization, and our allies?”

WE ACT also considered various potential policies
and how they would have an impact on “our
potential to establish policy goals” (e.g., obtaining
300 new buses powered by compressed natural
gas (CNG) and having all new Metropolitan Transit
Authority (MTA) depots converted for CNG). With

its partners, sometimes including allies at the
EPA, WE ACT also discussed how to use the study
fi ndings and the community’s experience to effect
its proposed policy and practice changes (4). In
one instance, residents sent more than 10,000
postcards featuring a picture of two children in gas
masks to two key policy targets: the governor and
the head of the MTA. Dozens of bus shelter ads,
widely distributed print media, and an effective
media advocacy campaign were among the efforts
undertaken to spread awareness. Despite this
careful advance work, WE ACT often had diffi culty
getting a hearing with relevant offi cials, and it
joined in fi ling a legal complaint against the
U. S. Department of Transportation. Although the
latter action was not expected to result in a win
and did not, it was an important move politically
in increasing the visibility of the issue and the
community’s commitment to seeking redress.

Policy Change Outcomes: WE ACT and its
partners have been widely credited with playing a
major role in securing the conversion of existing city
buses to clean diesel. Although not yet reaching
a key policy goal—getting 300 buses converted
to compressed natural gas and requiring all new
buses to use this technology—the partnership
helped bring about tighter air quality standards
that have withstood all legal appeals. EPA
offi cials also cited WE ACT as the major force
responsible for pressuring the agency to establish
permanent air monitoring stations in Harlem and
other “hot spots” locally and nationally (4).
WE ACT’s policy advocacy has expanded since
the seminal Earth Crew study. Continuing its
campaign to get the MTA to convert the city’s
buses to CNG, WE ACT now works closely with
the Natural Resources Defense Council. It also
played a key role in developing a statewide
environmental justice policy: the organization’s
executive director, Peggy Shepard, chaired the
task force that crafted the new policy and helped
secure its adoption. Of equal importance, WE
ACT has continued to build local capacity and
amplify the community’s voice through its role
in spearheading the Environmental Leadership/
Mental Health Leadership Training Program
and in co-chairing the Northeast Environmental

“They [came] to us and … provided us with health information and local health studies that convinced us that there was a real problem
here [and] that we ought to take the time and energy to help this community.” —Policymaker

PolicyLink

Justice Network. The scientists associated with
the partnership have continued to see their work
benefi t from community partner perspectives.

Barriers and Success Factors: Several factors
appeared to play a role in the partnership’s
effectiveness. Among them are WE ACT’s strong
community base, the scientifi c credibility of the
partnership’s research, strong policy and other
organizational alliances, and the careful background
work and strategic planning in which WE ACT is
engaged. The deep mutual respect and trust among
partnership members and WE ACT’s strategic use of
the mass media also appeared to contribute to its
effectiveness and policy impacts. At the same time,
the partnership struggled with different timetables
and resource allocations as well as varying levels
of commitment to the advocacy aspects of the
work. Diffi culties with simply getting meetings with
key decision makers, especially in the early days
of the project, were also a source of frustration.

New Directions: WE ACT sits on the steering
committee of a new citywide coalition, the
Campaign for New York’s Future, which is working
to ensure a sustainable, “greener” New York
for all residents. The partnership between WE
ACT and the CCCEH also has moved in new
directions, with the partners collaborating on a
citywide campaign, “Our Housing is Our Health,”
focused on indoor air quality. Together with nearly
30 organizational members, including tenant
associations, housing groups, and community-
based organizations, WE ACT is particularly
focused on changing the city’s policy on mold.
Their goal: banning building materials that
promote the growth of mold, and possibly even
making mold a household violation. With the
city’s Public Advocate, they are now working to
change the NYC Building Construction Code.

Summary Refl ections: For more than a dozen
years, the partnership between WE ACT and the
Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental
Health has been characterized by mutual respect,
trust, and a strong commitment to rigorous science
and effective policy advocacy. Policymakers and
others continue to point to the partnership’s
landmark Earth Crew study (7) as having provided

key ammunition in the successful fi ght for tighter
air quality standards and permanent air monitoring
in hot spots in Harlem and similarly impacted
neighborhoods around the country (4, 8). WE
ACT continues to devote considerable effort
to building individual and community capacity.
And its continuing partnership with CCCEH and
their allies demonstrates the power of CBPR and
related policy advocacy to study and address
problems at the intersection of place and health.

Contact Information:

Peggy Shepard,
Executive Director
WE ACT, Inc.
271 West 125th Street
Suite 308
New York, NY 100

212.961.1000
peggy@weact.org

Patrick Kinney, ScD
Associate Professor of
Clinical Public Health
Columbia University Mailman
School of Public Health
Center for Children’s
Environmental Health
60 Haven Avenue, B-116
New York, NY 10032
212.305.3663
plk3@columbia.edu

For Further Reading:

Breckwich Vásquez, V., M. Minkler, and P.
Shepard. 2006. Promoting environmental health
policy through community-based participatory
research: A case study from Harlem, New York.
Journal of Urban Health 83(1):101–10.

Brown, P., B. Mayer, S. Zavestoski et al. 2003. The
health politics of asthma: Environmental justice
and collective illness experience in the United
States. Social Science & Medicine 57:453–64.

Kinney, P. L., M. Aggarwal, M. E. Northridge
et al. 2000. Airborne concentrations of
PM2.5 and diesel exhaust particles on Harlem
sidewalks: A community-based pilot study.
Environmental Health Perspectives 108:213–18.

Shepard, P., V. Breckwich Vásquez, and
M. Minkler. 2008. Using CBPR to promote
environmental justice policy: A case study
from Harlem, New York. In Community-Based
Participatory Research for Health: From Process
to Outcomes, 2nd Edition, eds. M. Minkler and
N. Wallerstein. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

“There weren’t many community-based studies that showed exposure to diesel particles at that time. From a scientifi c perspective, I
think it played a role in [getting] the diesel exhaust controls.” —Academic Partner

PolicyLink

Case Study #2:

Tackling environmental injustice
in industrialized hog production
in rural North Carolina:
Concerned Citizens of Tillery and its
partnership with the University of
North Carolina, School of Public Health

Hog production in North Carolina more than tripled
from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, moving the
state from the fi fteenth- to the second-largest pork
producer in the nation. By 2007, the state boasted
more than 10 million hogs (1, 2). This thriving
industry has come at a signifi cant cost to the low-
income, mostly African American communities
where these intensive livestock operations (ILOs)
are disproportionately located. By replacing local
farms, harming local businesses by buying in
bulk outside the community, and degrading the
environment with their open hog-waste lagoons,

the massive hog operations also were commonly
believed to cause adverse health outcomes for
local residents, including eye irritations, respiratory
ailments, and diminished quality of life (3–6).

Almost 15 years ago, Concerned Citizens of Tillery
(CCT) had begun doing “barefoot epidemiology”
(in which residents conduct their own informal
research looking into possible associations between
exposures and adverse health outcomes) to study
the ILO problem. CCT is a strong community-based
organization that, for decades, had organized
around concerns of the mostly low-income,
African American residents of rural Halifax County.
Suspecting the seeping of hog waste into their
water supply, CCT members studied the dates of
water well construction, their depth, and their
proximity to the hog cesspools. CCT also reached
out to neighboring communities to help found an
environmental justice coalition, the Hog Roundtable,
to address the regional nature of the problems.
And their work was successful; CCT was heavily
credited with helping secure the passage, in 1992,
of a moratorium on industrial hog operations in
southeast Halifax County as well as victories such as
a new sewer line and the fi rst local fi re station (4–7).

The Partnership: In 1995, a journalist covering the
work of CCT helped connect its executive director,
Gary Grant, with epidemiology professor Steve
Wing at the School of Public Health, University
of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, and a
true CBPR partnership was born. This partnership
originally included staff at the Halifax County
health department and has received several
environmental justice grants from the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
to support its work. For more than a decade,
the partnership, which has also included UNC
students in research, organizing, and advocacy
work, has examined environmental racism in
the placement of industrialized hog operations
and the health and environmental effects of
ILOs. The coalition eventually expanded its
geographic scope and took the name Community
Health and Environmental Reawakening
(CHER) to refl ect its statewide reach (4–7).

“We don’t do policy, we just educate legislators!” —Community Partner

PolicyLink

Research Methods: The CCT/UNC partnership
has utilized door-to-door surveys, ethnographic
methods, water sampling and bacterial counts, and
spatial analysis. In a seminal study in 1998 funded
by the NIEHS, spatial analysis was used to compare
the prevalence of ILOs in wealthier, predominately
white census blocks with their prevalence in
poorer, largely African American communities,
adjusting for population density. Although the
epidemiologist conducted this statistical research, it
adhered to CBPR principles: the research question
had emerged from the community’s concerns;
local residents helped evaluate the quality of the
data on ILO locations based on their in-depth
knowledge of these facilities; and the interpretation
of fi ndings was done collaboratively (3, 6–7).

Findings: The spatial analysis demonstrated that
corporate-owned hog operations were far more
common in low-income and African American
communities, even after controlling for population
density, and were also more common in areas
where most residents depended on wells for
drinking water (3). The partnership’s interviews with
members of more than 150 households revealed far
more reports of headaches, sore throats, excessive
coughing, and other respiratory and eye problems
among people who lived closer to the ILOs (6–7).

Getting to Action: Working with UNC’s News
Service, the partnership developed and disseminated
a press release about the study fi ndings; the
academic partner also presented these fi ndings at
a national scientifi c meeting. Several media outlets
covered the study and its fi ndings as well, and
the lead community partner (who in 1996 and
1997 had appeared on the popular national news
program, 60 Minutes) was particularly adept at
helping bring media coverage to the work. Results
of the health survey were reported to the state
health department, whose press statement in May
1999 led to immediate reprisal by the powerful
North Carolina Pork Council, which demanded
to see the investigators’ confi dential data (see
“Barriers,” following). Despite the multiple legal
challenges that ensued, fi ndings from the research
have withstood the test of time and have been
used by health departments, the Environmental

Protection Agency, and the U. S. Department
of Agriculture in strengthening the case against
environmental racism (4–7). The roles of the
community and academic partners in providing
testimony based on the study fi ndings at hearings
and other venues also have fi gured into the
growing awareness and calls for change (4–5).

Policy Change Outcomes: Well before the
results of its fi rst partnership study with UNC were
released, the community partner, CCT, had used
its own study fi ndings and community members’
testimony to help secure passage of the fi rst
Intensive Livestock Operation ordinance in 1997.
Policy-related outcomes of the partnership’s work
are more diffi cult to tease out, in part because of
partners’ concerns about creating any perception
that government funds were used to support
policy advocacy endeavors. As a community leader
with CCT was careful to point out, “We don’t do
policy, we just educate legislators.” And educate
they did! Several legislators and other stakeholders
interviewed for this study emphasized the critical
role that CCT played in achieving subsequent
policy change. As one state policymaker recalled:

“ … I have always said that we have an intensive
livestock ordinance in Halifax County due
to the efforts of CCT. They started it. I don’t
recall the county commissioners or the Board
of Health in any way being involved until we
were brought into the issue by CCT.” (4).

The collective impact of diverse components of
the CHER project, including community meetings,
workshops, and presentations, was seen as having
raised awareness about the impact of ILOs (4–7)
and contributed to momentum for policy change.
Results of the health survey also appeared to play
a role in this process and were recently included
in a policy paper prepared by the governor’s offi ce
on the future of the hog industry in the state.

CCT further played a leadership role in organizing
the North Carolina EJ Network (NCEJN), which
helped invigorate a statewide environmental justice
movement. In 2007, the NCEJN in turn helped
form a coalition of grassroots and environmental

“ … we have an intensive livestock ordinance in Halifax County due to the efforts of CCT … I don’t recall the county commissioners or
the Board of Health in any way being involved until we were brought into the issue by CCT.” —Policymaker

PolicyLink

organizations to advocate for a ban on the
lagoon and sprayfi eld technology “as a fi rst step
toward the complete elimination of this form of
waste management” statewide (6). The rigorous
research of the CBPR partnership—and the NCEJ
Network’s continued activism (e.g., holding a
51-hour vigil on the grounds of the state capitol
that included construction of a mock hog factory
complete with 40 gallons of pig waste)—helped
get a law passed that would ban any new hog
factories in the state (6, 8). Although this was seen
as only a partial victory because it still allowed
farmers to keep open-air lagoons indefi nitely
(8), it represented an important step forward.

Barriers and Success Factors: Although the
studies—particularly the spatial analysis and resident
survey—have been widely cited and used to help
advocate for change, the partnership encountered
formidable obstacles. Strong ties between the pork
industry and the university’s Board of Governors
had what the academic partner called a “chilling
effect,” with the state’s Pork Council’s demand to
see the researchers’ confi dential data posing threats
to confi dentiality and trust. Although these data
were eventually released with potential individual
and household identifi ers removed (5), time had
been lost and costs incurred in the process. A long
history of institutionalized racism, concentrated land
ownership, and a decade of legislation favoring
pig production, often at the expense of public
health and the environment, also worked against
the partnership’s efforts. The election to the state
legislature of the state’s biggest pork producer,
who also headed the powerful North Carolina Pork
Producers Association, further helped to promote
the interests of the hog industry over those of
residents (4). In the face of such realities, CCT’s
long history of community activism and trust,
the “strong reciprocal relationship” between the
community and academic partners (4, 5), and the
high quality of the research they produced were

important facilitators of change. The effective
collaborative leadership of the community and
academic partners, and their skillful and timely
use of the mass media to create awareness and
promote the positions being advocated, also
played a key role in the successes observed.

New Directions: CCT and its academic partners
continued to collaborate, most recently using
a repeat-measures design in a mixed-methods
CBPR study in 16 counties to collect data on the
impacts of hog factory-related exposures on health
and quality of life (9). The preliminary release of
fi ndings to the community and the mass media also
helped galvanize change efforts (8). As previously
noted, the community partner’s seminal role
in helping to create a statewide environmental
justice network and grassroots coalition, and the
latter’s successful advocacy for legislation banning
new hog factories in the state (6, 8), illustrate the
ways in which this work, and the activism it has
contributed to, have been taken to the state level.

Summary Refl ections: Concerned Citizens
of Tillery has been called “a textbook lesson in
how to grow a healthier community from the
ground up” (10). CCT’s history as a powerful,
autonomous community-based organization also
positioned it to be a strong and equal partner in
CBPR. The capacity and commitment of CCT and
its UNC partners for genuine collaboration and
collaborative leadership, and the high quality of
their research and organizing, further contributed
to these achievements. The partnership is widely
cited as an example of the promise and practice of
effective community-based participatory research
(11). In its second decade, the partnership stands
poised to continue its efforts to study, through
well-designed mixed-methods research, and to
help redress, through “educating legislators,”
environmental racism and its consequences
in rural North Carolina and beyond.

“CCT is my lifeline … When you come here, there are no big guys, no little geezers. Everybody is together … [W]hen there is unity, there is
strength. I feel stronger after I leave the meeting.” —Community Member

22
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Contact Information:

Gary Grant, Executive Director
Concerned Citizens of Tillery
P. O. Box

Tillery, NC 27887
252.826.3017
Tillery@aol.com

Steve Wing, PhD
Associate Professor,
Epidemiology
University of North
Carolina, School of
Public Health
2101F McGavern-
Greenberg Hall
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
919.966.7416
steve_wing@unc.edu

For Further Reading:

Tajik, M., and M. Minkler. 2007. Environmental
justice research and action: A case study in
political economy and community-academic
collaboration. International Quarterly of
Community Health Education 26(3):213–231.

Tajik, M., S. Wing, and C. Grant. In press.
Environmental Justice from the Roots: Tillery,
North Carolina. In Academics and Activists:
Confronting Ecological and Community
Crisis in Appalachia, eds. Stephanie McSpirit,
L. Faltraco, and C. Bailey. Lexington: Joyce
Harrison University Press of Kentucky.

Wing, S. 2002. Social Responsibility and
Research Ethics in Community-Driven Studies of
Industrialized Hog Production. Environmental
Health Perspectives 110(5):437–44.

Wing, S., R. A. Horton, N. Muhammad, and
G. R. Grant. 2008. Integrating Epidemiology,
Education, and Organizing for Environmental
Justice: Community Health Effects of
Industrial Hog Operations. American Journal
of Public Health 98(8):1390–97.

Case Study #3:

Moving out of the nursing
home and into the community:
The Departments of Disability and
Rehabilitation at the University of
Illinois – Chicago, Access Living, and the
Progress Center for Independent Living

The U. S. Supreme Court Olmstead decision in 1999
challenged states to provide services to people
with disabilities “in the most integrated setting
appropriate” to their needs. Although many states
had already moved away from institutionalization
and towards community-based supports, others,
including Illinois, had only begun the change needed
to rebalance their long-term care systems. Indeed,
the number of disabled people under age 60 who
were living in Illinois nursing homes grew 25 percent
from 1997 to 2003, and 80 percent of the state’s
long-term care funding went to nursing homes
and other institutional care (1, 2). These fi gures,

PolicyLink

the diffi culties for individuals in moving back to the
community once institutionalized, and the social
barriers experienced by disabled people who have
moved out of nursing homes, were a major impetus
for the Chicago-based CBPR project, “Moving out
of the nursing home and into the community.”

The Partnership: The project was born in 2000
from a long partnership between two professors
in Disability Studies at the University of Illinois and
their community partners at two local Centers
for Independent Living (CILs), Access Living
and Progress Center, founded and operated by
and for disabled people.1 The topic grew out
of conversation between the disability rights
community and academic partners, who shared
deep concerns about the number of disabled
people in nursing homes in Illinois as well as
the diffi culties they experienced in leaving these
settings and reintegrating into the community.

Funded by a grant from the National Institute on
Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), the
project was designed to document the experiences
and concerns of disabled people who attempted
to move out of nursing homes, and to develop,
implement, and evaluate an individual and a
community empowerment and policy change
intervention known as the Social Action Group
(SAG) Program. Grounded in an empowerment
model, the intervention included peer-led
education about disability rights, help in accessing
resources, and individual and community capacity
building to promote systems change aimed at
rebalancing long-term care funding in the state.

Research Methods: Initial focus groups with
30 disabled people transitioning out of nursing
homes informed the development of the primary
project intervention—a fi ve-week SAG Program,
which then was fi eld tested through a controlled
intervention trial. A 300-item baseline survey was
administered to 140 participants who had been

1Although “people with disabilities” often appears in
the literature, “disabled people” and other “disability-
centered” terms are preferred by many activists and
scholars who promote positive disability identity as an
act of resistance against disability oppression.

randomly selected from the lists of individuals
involved in the state’s community integration
waiver program and were divided into a SAG
intervention group and a waitlisted control group.
Repeated measures were used at three months
and 12 months post-intervention to test the effects
of participation. Qualitative interviews and life
narratives were used to gather additional process
data. Ten follow-up focus groups averaging seven
to 12 program participants each, and six town
hall meetings ranging from 40 to 150 attendees,
were conducted during and after the intervention.
They enabled participants to “tell their stories,”
discuss preliminary study fi ndings, and develop
action plans focused in part on helping to effect
policy change (3, 4). Members of the waitlisted
control group also were invited to attend the
post-SAG intervention town hall meetings.

Findings: By the end of the project, a signifi cant
difference was observed between the SAG
intervention group and the control group in terms
of the proportion who had successfully transitioned
out of nursing homes (37 percent of SAG members
vs. 20 percent of controls). By mid-October 2004,
more than 200 disabled people had participated in
the project through social action working groups,
and many had developed skills as advocates for
policy-level changes that could help address the
bias toward institutionalization in long-term care
funding and availability (3, 4). Focus group data also
helped uncover key community concerns that then
became the basis for subsequent policy-focused
efforts. Among these were: a “Money Follows
the Person” program, through which disabled
consumers themselves would be enabled to select
the support services they needed; emergency
backup personal attendant services for people
at risk of re-institutionalization without such
support; and a community reintegration program
for people over 60 who wanted to move out of
nursing homes and often faced particularly diffi cult
obstacles in doing so. These fi ndings concerning
disabled peoples’ desired services and unmet
needs in turn pointed to the need for new funding
allocations and accompanying policy changes to
support relevant programmatic interventions.

“A researcher asked us about the defi nition of disability. At fi rst we talked about personal limits, but now we talk about the power
of voice.” —Program Participant

PolicyLink

Getting to Action: Community and academic
partners identifi ed policy directions to pursue,
drawing on the focus group data and policy-
relevant information from key sources within and
outside the state. For each policy objective (e.g.,
getting the above-mentioned Money Follows the
Person program and emergency backup personal
attendant services), academic and community
partners, along with SAG members, testifi ed at
public hearings, contacted offi cials, wrote letters
to the editor, and took part in town hall meetings,
rallies, and demonstrations to increase public
and policymaker awareness of and support for
their positions. The partners did careful advance
work prior to public meetings to determine the
best strategies, the data needed, and the most
effective ways to communicate information. In
the words of an academic partner, “we always
had a lot of evidence before we walked into a
room for a meeting with the state [including] a
ream of facts and life stories from participants …
to challenge them to move forward.”

The effective use of media advocacy—especially
by the CIL partners, including opinion and
editorial pieces and articles in the Chicago Tribune
(5–7)—helped publicize Illinois’ poor standing with
respect to long-term care spending and highlighted
the partners’ stance on key issues. SAG participants
added a human dimension to the facts and statistics
by telling their stories to journalists as well. Building
strong coalitions beyond the existing partnership
also was a key policy-related activity. Partnership
members were founding members of The Illinois
Olmstead Coalition, for example, which advocated
for Illinois to develop an effective action plan for
moving disabled people out of institutional settings
while providing the supports needed (e.g., a living
wage for attendants) to facilitate community living.

Policy Change Outcomes: Increasing pressure on
the state to comply with the Olmstead decision and
the activities of many stakeholders precluded teasing
out the effects of this CBPR effort on specifi c policy
changes. However, several policymakers and leaders
in the disability community described the partnership
as having contributed substantially to important
policy and systems change efforts and outcomes.

One policymaker remarked, for example, that the
partnership “was instrumental in providing evidence
needed to change our policies and fund new
demonstration projects like the Senior Community
Reintegration Program and the Emergency Personal
Assistant Program in Illinois.” Other key outcomes
for which the partnership was given some of the
credit included the Money Follows the Person
program provision, funded in 2007 through a $55.7
million Phase I grant from the Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid to the state (3, 4). Illinois’ earlier
reauthorization of a statewide council to reassess
Olmstead implementation and to prepare a strategic
plan for rebalancing long-term care funding toward
community-based care also was described by several
stakeholders as an important intermediate step
to which the partnership’s research and advocacy
contributed substantially. Finally, the programs
helped nurture a new generation of disability
rights mentors and advocates from among a
highly marginalized population: disabled people
in and transitioning out of nursing homes.

Barriers and Success Factors: The often
formidable diffi culties experienced in working
through the state bureaucracy, coupled with the
power of the nursing home industry, were major
barriers to success. Discrimination against disabled
people at every level in society also was noted.
The tensions inherent in CBPR, which one partner
called an “unholy matrimony” between scholarship
and activism, and the lack of suffi cient funding for
community members also were raised. Despite these
concerns, partners repeatedly pointed to success
factors such as a long history of collaboration and
strong mutual trust, deep commitment to the cause,
an effective and a diverse local disability rights
network, and federal legislation mandating the
enforcement of the civil rights of disabled people.

Summary Refl ections: By bucking the national
trend toward deinstitutionalization and being slow
to comply with the Olmstead decision mandating
least restrictive alternative living environments for
disabled people, Illinois may have presented the
disability community and its allies with an important
opportunity for research and action. The partnership
was credited with having played a substantial role

“We always had a lot of evidence before we walked into a room for a meeting with the state [including] a ream of facts and life
stories of participants … to challenge them to move forward … ” —Academic Partner

PolicyLink
25

in successful efforts to secure funding for several
new initiatives, especially the historic allocation of
more than $55 million for a Money Follows the
Person program, which was among the partnership’s
signature issues. Equally important, the partnership
has trained a new generation of disability activists
and systems change advocates, many of whom
continue to attend bi-annual town hall meetings.
In the words of one policymaker, the SAG program
and its town hall meetings helped create “a great
infl ux of new voices carrying the message that it is
time for a policy shift in Illinois … Policymakers are
hearing this message and are reaching out to the
disability community for additional collaboration.”

Contact Information:

Marca Bristo,
President and CEO
Access Living
115 W. Chicago Avenue
Chicago, IL 606

312.640.2100
mbristo@aol.com

Diane Coleman, JD, MBA
Executive Director
Progress Center for
Independent Living
7521 Madison St.
Forest Park, IL 601

312.640.2100
NDYCOLEMAN@aol.com

Joy Hammel, PhD, OTR/L,
Associate Professor
University of Illinois
at Chicago
Departments of
Occupational Therapy
& Disability and Human
Development
1919 W. Taylor Street
Rm. 311
Chicago, IL 60612
312.996.3513
hammel@uic.edu

For Further Reading:

Hammel, J., S. Magasi, L. Fogg, T. Wilson, and E.
Rodriguez. 2007. Moving out of the Nursing Home
to the Community: Outcomes from the Participatory
Social Action Group Project. Unpublished paper.

Minkler, M., J. Hammel, C. Gill, S. Magasi, V.
Breckwich Vásquez, M. Bristo, and D. Coleman.
2008. Community-Based Participatory Research in
Disability and Long-Term Care Policy: A Case Study.
Journal of Disability Policy Studies 19 (2):114-126.

Case Study #4:

Using “data judo,” community
organizing, and policy advocacy
on the regional level:
Southern California Environmental
Justice Collaborative

Southeast Los Angeles is the site of more than
200 toxic hazards and 60 federally designated
Superfund sites (1–3). The area is predominantly
made up of communities of color that experience
disproportionately high rates of cancer, asthma,
learning disabilities, and other health problems
(4). Although many environmental health and
social justice organizations had been active in
this area for years, a more coordinated, regional
approach to environmental justice was needed,
as were high-quality scientifi c data establishing
the existence of environmental health inequities.

Since its founding more than a decade ago,
the Southern California Environmental Justice
Collaborative (the Collaborative) has focused on
addressing these gaps through a three-pronged
approach: community organizing, research,
and philanthropy. The Collaborative played

“At strategic moments [the community partner] has been able to bring literally hundreds of community voices into the public
decision-making process.” —Academic Partner

PolicyLink

a key role in helping to secure a 75 percent
reduction in the maximum individual cancer
risk standard—the number of risks per million
allowed by a government body—for the area
and advancing the concept of cumulative, rather
than individual, risk exposure among regulators,
policymakers, and other stakeholders.

The Partnership: The Southern California
Environmental Justice Collaborative is a
CBPR partnership made up of a community-
based organization, Communities for a Better
Environment (CBE); the Liberty Hill Foundation, a
local philanthropy; and a multidisciplinary team
of academic researchers from the University of
California, Santa Cruz, Occidental College, and
Brown University. Formally created in 1998 with
the help of a $1.7 million grant from The California
Endowment, the partnership was built on the
foundation of strong prior working relationships
among the partners. It maintains offi ces in Southeast
Los Angeles and Northern California. Its goal is to
improve the environmental health of low-income
communities of color by generating sound scientifi c
evidence, developing community capacity through
grant-making and technical assistance to CBOs,
and advocating and mobilizing for policy change.

The decision-making structure allows the community
organization, CBE, to have the ultimate say on
setting the partnership’s research priorities and
questions. Academic researchers then conduct
studies based on the community’s research
questions while maintaining open communication
with partners about the research design and
methods. The Collaborative jointly interprets
fi ndings and makes decisions on dissemination.
Liberty Hill provides technical, administrative, and
fi nancial support for the partnership. Placing great
emphasis on research rigor, the Collaborative
understands and accepts the possibility that research
fi ndings may not support advocacy needs.

Research Methods: The Collaborative employs
secondary data analysis as its chosen research
method, for two main reasons. First, using the data
from state and federal government agencies such as
the EPA, the National Cancer Institute, and the
U. S. Census Bureau is more economical than

primary data collection, allowing for broader
coverage of research questions. Second, this
approach is advantageous for building policy
arguments. When the Collaborative does analysis
based on government data to advocate for
policy change, neither government agencies nor
private industry are likely to challenge the quality
or credibility of the data (4). The Collaborative’s
research methods include computer-based mapping,
multivariate statistical analysis, environmental health
risk assessment, and spatial statistics. Using such
methods, the Collaborative examined whether
there was a relationship between minority racial/
ethnic status and residential proximity to toxic
waste facilities. The partnership also developed
an environmental health “riskscape” to illustrate
the distribution of pollution burdens from a
demographic and geographic perspective (5).

Findings: The Collaborative documented
disproportionate exposure to toxic waste in
communities of color and linked the exposure to
a corresponding increased risk for cancer. Findings
further demonstrated that polluting industries tend
to locate in the areas where low-income minorities
reside. These data, published in peer-reviewed
journals in 1999 and 2001 (3, 5), were critical
for challenging the “minority move-in theory,”
which suggests that minorities move into already
heavily polluted areas because the property is
cheaper, rather than the other way around (3, 5).

Getting to Action: The Collaborative used its
research fi ndings to further a key part of its policy
agenda: getting a change in Rule 1402, which had
been adopted by the California South Coast Air
Quality Management District (SCAQMD) in 1994
and established an allowable lifetime cancer risk
level for toxic air emissions of 100 risks per million.
Not only was this level far above the one risk per
million that the federal Clean Air Act recommended
and that CBE and its allies had fought for; it
was actually double the 50 per million limit that
those representing the polluting industries had
sought! CBE and its allies had long pressed for a
revisiting of Rule 1402, and when an opportunity
enabled a possible renegotiation of the rule in
2000, the Collaborative sprang into action.

“…we have already learned so many skills that we can ourselves go to the factories and demand public records. We know where
to go, we know who to write to, we know how to go to their management … . We [know] how to motivate and gather people and
mobilize them.” —Community Member

PolicyLink
27

Calling a meeting of environmental groups and
presenting its research fi ndings and the opportunity
at hand, the Collaborative helped motivate these
groups to mobilize together on broader, regional
issues, with Rule 1402 as a timely starting place.
CBE did door-to-door outreach to inform community
members and gave numerous presentations to
schools and local groups, as well as Toxic Tours
for policymakers, bringing the issues alive through
visits to the affected communities. Through these
venues, presentations at hearings, and in the
media—including a strategically timed op-ed piece
written by the partners and printed in the Los
Angeles Times just before the decision meeting
was to take place (6)—the Collaborative’s research
fi ndings were shared and linked to Rule 1402 and
to the concept of cumulative risk exposure. The
Collaborative also brought attention to the powerful
institutional forces driving the outcomes of prior
decision making, helping bring further pressure on
the air quality board to reconsider its earlier decision.

Policy Change Outcomes: The Collaborative’s
strong science, effective media advocacy, and
powerful grassroots mobilization, together with
the productive work of the coalition it helped
create, have been given much credit for SCAQMD’s
decision to reduce the allowable cancer risk
from pollution from 100 to 25 cases per million
(7–8). Further, and with CBE taking the lead, the
Collaborative succeeded in its campaign for the
adoption by Cal/EPA of an environmental justice
document to guide the agency’s work in this area
(4). Included in the document guidelines were
the development of new methods for assessing
cumulative risk and the integration of the
precautionary principle—namely, being proactive
“when scientifi c evidence strongly suggests, but
does not yet fully prove” that an exposure is
causing harm (4). Finally, the Cal/EPA guidance’s
call for the development of new programs and
resources to increase authentic public participation
in decision making around environmental health,
particularly in communities of color, was an
important step forward. CBE has been a key
player in its implementation (9); e.g., serving on its
Environmental Justice Advisory Committee, which,
in turn, led to more systematic implementation
of environmental justice programs in the state.

Barriers and Success Factors: The Collaborative
encountered many obstacles, including the far
greater resources of private industry, lack of
suffi cient understanding of relevant legal processes,
and policymakers’ lack of familiarity and comfort
with environmental justice issues, particularly
ones as complex as the precautionary principle
and cumulative impact. On the positive side,
however, were an improving political climate for
environmental justice (10), CBE and its allies’ ability
to speak with a united voice and to mobilize needed
“people power,” and the Collaborative’s effective
use of both credible data and mass media. A stable
and substantial funding base was another major
advantage, enabling the Collaborative to focus on
its research and organizing efforts without having
to “chase the dollars.” The opportunity to revisit
Rule 1402 was, of course, a critical facilitating
factor in this case study. But the partners were
ready to capitalize on that opportunity with
credible data and a strong facility for community
organizing, policy advocacy, and media outreach.

Summary Refl ections: The Southern California
Environmental Justice Collaborative demonstrates
the value of CBPR approaches in achieving
policy goals in environmental health. The group’s
three-pronged model—community organizing,
research, and philanthropy—played an early and
important role in helping to unify the somewhat
fragmented environmental justice efforts in the
state. It brought groups together to mobilize around
regional issues in ways that could in turn have
an impact on the policy level. The Collaborative’s
experience suggests a need to build a popular
base in advocating for policy change. The story
underscores the benefi ts of organically developed
relationships among partners and a deep collective
commitment to sustain the movement, and the
need for a long-term perspective on achieving
change through community capacity building.
The Collaborative’s experience also demonstrates
the value of philanthropic partners in enabling
efforts like this one to focus on the work at hand
without the distraction of funding pressures.
Finally, the Collaborative’s achievements with a
relatively underutilized form of CBPR may hold
an important lesson for the fi eld. As articulated
by several of the partners (4), “The achievements

“When you are dealing with agencies and you are analyzing their data and showing them your results, they are hard pressed to tell
you your data sucks because it is their data.” —Academic Partner

PolicyLink

of [the Collaborative] show that it is time to
mainstream the marginal: academic-community
collaboratives that emphasize secondary data
analysis in their CBPR approach can be powerful
agents for policy change without compromising
the standards of rigorous scientifi c research.”

Contact Information:

Bill Gallegos,
Executive Director
Communities for a
Better Environment
5610 Pacifi c Blvd. #203
Huntington Park, CA 90255
323.826.9771 X 109
billgallegos@cbecal.org

Rachel Morello-
Frosch, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor
University of
California, Berkeley
Department of
Environmental Science,
Policy and Management
& School of Public Health
128B Giannini
Berkeley, CA 94720
510.643.63

rmf@nature.berkeley.edu

For Further Reading:

Morello-Frosch, R., M. Pastor, and J. Sadd.
2001. Environmental justice and southern
California’s “riskscape”: The distribution of air
toxic exposures and health risks among diverse
communities. Urban Affairs Review 36:551–78.

Morello-Frosch, R., M. Pastor, J. Sadd, C. Porras,
and M. Prichard. 2005. Citizens, science, and
data judo: Leveraging secondary data analysis
to build a community-academic collaborative
for environmental justice in Southern California.
In Methods in Community-Based Participatory
Research for Health, eds. B. Israel, E. Eng, A. Schulz,
and E. A. Parker. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Petersen, D., M. Minkler, V. Breckwich
Vásquez, and A. C. Baden. 2006. Community-
based participatory research as a tool for
policy change: A case study of the Southern
California Environmental Justice Collaborative.
Review of Policy Research 23(2):339–53.

Case Study #5:

Addressing food insecurity
in San Francisco’s Bayview
Hunters Point:
The Literacy for Environmental
Justice Partnership

In low-income, inner-city neighborhoods such
as San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Point, high
rates of obesity and food insecurity, or limited or
uncertain access to nutritionally safe and adequate
foods (1), often are intimately interconnected.
Many such neighborhoods have experienced
“supermarket fl ight,” with large, full-service
grocery stores moving out to more profi table
locations. Together with transportation barriers,
this phenomenon often leaves residents dependent

“[The Collaborative] provided a model for how to work on environmental justice issues on a regional level and how to better
integrate organizing efforts on EJ in a way that can push for policymaking.” —Policymaker

PolicyLink

on fast-food outlets or small corner stores that are
well stocked with liquor, tobacco, and processed
foods heavy in salt, sugar, and fat, but offer little
in the way of fresh fruits and vegetables (2, 3).

The Partnership: In 2002, a CBPR partnership
linked a nonprofi t youth empowerment and
environmental justice education organization,
Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ), with health
educators at the San Francisco Department of
Public Health and with an outside evaluator to
address the food insecurity problem. Local high
school youth, mostly from underserved racial/
ethnic communities, worked fi ve to 10 hours per
week as paid LEJ interns studying and addressing
the problem. Using the health department’s fi ve-
step Community Action Model (CAM), health
educators taught the youth critical thinking and
research skills for understanding the root causes
of problems, identifying contributing factors,
gathering data, evaluating action-oriented change
strategies, and developing policy solutions (4).

Because the health department’s Tobacco Free
Project funded the LEJ partnership, its work had
to be related to smoking. But the partners readily
found connections between the community’s
concerns with food insecurity and the problem
of tobacco. For example, the youth soon learned
that Philip Morris/Altria was the parent company
of Kraft and Nabisco and was at that time the
second-largest food conglomerate in the world
(5). The partnership also benefi ted from the earlier
work of other city agencies looking at the retail
food environment and of a group of community
elders who, in the early 1990s, began meeting to
discuss their concern about the disproportionate
sales of alcohol and tobacco in the local stores,
which attracted loitering and vandalism. The
proposed approach—providing incentives to
stores that became “good neighbors” by offering
healthier, fresh foods and reducing alcohol and
tobacco advertising while promoting community
safety—caught the attention of a charismatic
local supervisor, who also had a long-standing
interest in food insecurity in her community.

Research Methods: The research component of

the partnership’s work attempted to address several
key questions: What was the reality of current
access (or lack of access) to healthy foods in the
neighborhood? Would increased access at the
local stores translate into more residents shopping
locally? Would local merchants consider making
changes to increase their stock of healthy foods?
What incentives would encourage this to happen?

With training by the evaluator and health
department staff, the LEJ youth developed and
conducted an initial community survey of 130
residents, asking about their needs and desires
in relation to local markets, health and nutrition
behaviors and habits, and what it would take
to get them to shop locally instead of outside
the community. The youth also used store-shelf
diagramming to determine how much space in
local stores was devoted to processed foods and
to tobacco, liquor, and other products. The youth
conducted in-depth interviews with merchants at
fi ve local stores and utilized Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) mapping to display the location of
corner stores, supermarkets, transportation routes,
and relevant community demographics (6, 7).

LEJ worked with a student at UC Berkeley’s School
of Business to conduct a study of the economic
feasibility for local stores of increasing their
stocking of healthier foods, and of the potential
economic incentive mechanisms available through
the city and related programs. Finally, and because
much local policy work involves being able to
show what’s worked in other communities, they
collaborated with the local supervisor, Sophie
Maxwell, to study related policies in different cities.

Findings: Store-shelf diagramming in 11 corner
stores revealed that on average, close to 40
percent of shelf space went to processed foods,
26 percent to tobacco and alcohol, 17 percent to
sodas and other beverages, and just two to fi ve
percent to fresh fruits and vegetables (6–8). The
partnership’s GIS mapping showed that it took
residents (many of whom lacked reliable cars)
approximately one hour and three bus transfers
to get to the closest supermarket. Interviews
with merchants and community surveys added

“The [LEJ partnership] decided on a voluntary policy because there are a lot of economic issues involved. They didn’t want to go
into the neighborhood and say, ‘We’re another group telling you what you should be doing.’” —Academic Partner

30
PolicyLink

other important information, including the
fact that residents were favorable to increasing
access to healthy foods and decreasing the
availability of alcohol and tobacco advertising at
the local stores (4, 6–8). Interviews with several
merchants revealed that they were interested
in the possibility of joining a “good neighbor”
program if they could receive incentives that
would make such changes economically feasible.

Getting to Action: Encouraged by these
fi ndings and working closely with Supervisor
Sophie Maxwell, the LEJ partnership worked on
establishing a Good Neighbor Program (GNP) in
the Bayview neighborhood. Four city departments
were quickly recruited as program co-sponsors,
with the Redevelopment Agency now beginning to
provide façade improvements to local stores that
agreed to make specifi c health-promoting changes
in their business practices. It is hoped that other
concessions, such as discounted loans and energy-
effi cient appliances, can also be provided eventually.

The partnership developed detailed memorandums
of understanding (MOUs), spelling out details such
as how much space in the Good Neighbor stores
would be devoted to fresh produce. City entities,
including the Mayor’s Offi ce on Economic and
Workforce Development, the Department of the
Environment, and the Redevelopment Agency,
joined the health department in contributing staff
and resources to manage and sustain the program,
with an eye to possible citywide expansion. LEJ
continues to take a lead in the program by providing
technical assistance and working with youth who
help with taste testing and branding at the pilot
store, Super Save Market, which became a “Good
Neighbor” in December 2003. This pilot store saw
an increase in produce sales from fi ve percent to
15 percent, and a decrease in alcohol sales from
25 percent to 15 percent of total sales in the fi rst
seven months. Four years later, in 2007, these
fi gures remained strong: Produce sales remained
up 12 percent, alcohol and cigarettes down 10
percent, and overall profi ts up 12 percent (7, 8)
compared to their pre-store conversion rates of sale.
Based in part on the early success of the pilot store,

other stores were encouraged to become “Good
Neighbors.” Finally, LEJ joined other stakeholders in
helping to promote a state assembly bill that would
establish healthy corner store programs statewide.

Policy Change Outcomes: Successful adoption of
the voluntary municipal policy that promotes store
conversions in the Bayview neighborhood resulted in
four stores becoming “Good Neighbors” between
2004 and 2007; three additional stores converted
in 2007. Five new stores will be recruited in 2008–
2009 with additional funding from The California
Endowment. On a larger scale, and with the support
of the LEJ partnership and other groups, state
Assemblyman Mark Leno introduced Assembly Bill
2384, supporting the establishment of a statewide
“Healthy Food Purchase” pilot program modeled
on the GNP and other corner-store conversion
programs. The bill was passed and signed into law
in 2006, albeit without a budgetary appropriation.

Barriers and Success Factors: Implementation
of the Good Neighbor Program has sometimes
proved challenging, with one of the early conversion
stores recently reporting having trouble selling fresh
produce and consequently needing to stock less
than when it originally became a Good Neighbor.
A special challenge lies in addressing price point;
for example, coming up with innovative models to
connect stores with local farmers and then providing
produce at prices that local residents can afford
and will purchase. Turnover among youth members
and program staff posed another challenge
and led to some incomplete data collection.
Yet, the outcomes of this voluntary policy effort
appear encouraging, whether measured in store
recruitment and compliance, youth empowerment,
or program growth and sustainability.

The long-term viability of this effort will depend
in part on larger political and economic realities,
among them the economic downturn and the fact
that the fi rst new supermarket in this neighborhood
in over a decade is expected to open in 2010. Taking
the work to scale statewide is also proving to be
a challenge. Getting a budgetary appropriation
by the 2011 deadline that would enable the

“[A lesson for other youth partnerships is] not being intimidated by people in suits … You are the one dealing with it every day in
the community in which you are a part.” —Community Member

PolicyLink

enactment of AB 2384 (supporting a statewide
pilot program modeled in part on the GNP) does
not seem likely in the current fi scal climate. But the
bill’s sponsors and supporters are continuing the
fi ght while getting their message out nationally:
LEJ is an active partner in a new national corner
store network and hopes to use the San Francisco
experiences to help communities in diverse
parts of the country mount similar programs.

Summary Refl ections: Literacy for Environmental
Justice and its health department and other
partners, with strong support from a local supervisor
and a willing city government, have achieved an
innovative partial solution to a persistent problem,
with good potential for sustainability. LEJ youth have
been fully engaged in many aspects of the work,
utilizing technical assistance and the Community
Action Model framework to help structure and
formulate their partnership’s research and policy
strategy. Although the long-term viability of this
ambitious effort will depend in large part on forces
beyond the control of the partners, subsequent
work on the state and national levels appears to
hold potential for bringing the “good neighbor”
concept to low-income communities on a far larger
scale through participation in the Healthy Corner
Stores Network and the sharing of a recently
developed Good Neighbor Best Practices Kit.

Contact Information:

Gwendolyn Smith
GN Manager
Literacy for
Environmental Justice
800 Innes Av. #11
San Francisco, CA 94124
415.282.68

goodneighbor@lejyouth.org

Susana Hennessey
Lavery, MPH
Health Educator
San Francisco Department
of Public Health
Tobacco Free Project
30 Van Ness Avenue,
Suite 2300
San Francisco, CA 94102
415.581.2446
Susana.Hennessey-
Lavery@sfdph.org

For Further Reading:

Breckwich Vásquez, V., D. Lanza, S. Hennessey
Lavery, M. Minkler, and H. S. Halpin. 2007.
Addressing food security through public policy
action in a community-based participatory research
partnership. Health Promotion Practice 8(4):342–49.

Hennessey Lavery, S., M. L. Smith, A. A. Esparza,
A. Hrushow, M. Moore, and D. F. Reed. 2005. The
community action model: A community-driven
model designed to address disparities in health.
American Journal of Public Health 95(4):611–16.

Hennessey Lavery, S., M. L. Smith, and M. Moore.
2005. The community action model: Organizing
for change in San Francisco’s Tobacco Free Project.
Health Education and Behavior 32(3):405–07.

“Community leaders know about us. We attend a lot of meetings in the community and community leaders know who we are. They
know what we do and are in support of what we do.” —Community Youth

“I believe the young people are driven by making a difference, by wanting to make a difference, and seeing that they do make a
difference in their community, not just in their own lives.” —Community Partner

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Case Study #6:

Preventing lead exposure among
children in Tar Creek, Oklahoma:
Tribal Efforts against Lead

Once at the heart of a vibrant lead and zinc mining
industry, the Tar Creek region of Ottawa County,
Oklahoma, has been of special concern to health
workers and environmental activists since the
mid-1990s because of contaminated soil and very
high blood lead levels and anemia in the area’s
children (1, 2). Since the sale of lead-laden mine
tailings was an important part of the local economy
in this resource-poor community, environmental
agencies had been slow to regulate its use. In the
mid-1990s, however, Indian Health Service (IHS)
data demonstrated that a high percentage of Native
American children in the area were anemic and
had blood lead levels high enough to increase their
vulnerability to a host of problems, including lower
intelligence quotient (IQ) scores, shortened attention
span, and diffi culties with coordination and fi ne

motor skills (1, 3). These data provided the impetus
for an ambitious new effort to address this problem,
and Tribal Efforts against Lead (TEAL) was born.

The Partnership: Established in 1996 with funding
from the National Institute of Environmental
Health Sciences (NIEHS), the TEAL partnership
includes members from nine Native American
tribes and nations, academic researchers from
three universities (University of Oklahoma
Health Sciences Center, Emory University, and
University of New Mexico), the Ottawa County
Department of Health, the Oklahoma Department
of Environmental Quality (DEQ), and a community-
based environmental advocacy organization.

Research Methods: TEAL’s centerpiece was the
design and evaluation of a community-based lay
health advisor intervention (2) for the prevention of
lead poisoning among Native American children.
Cross-sectional, population-based, blood lead
screenings and detailed caregiver interviews were
collected before and after the two-year lay health
worker intervention. Organizational network
interviews (n=21) and environmental assessments
of 245 homes also were conducted (1, 4). Forty
Clan Mothers and Fathers who were respected
members of the local Native American community
were hired and trained as lay health advisors.
Although the research design and evaluation were
undertaken primarily by the academic partners,
community partners played key roles throughout;
e.g., in broadening the intervention to include
white as well as Native children in a second phase;
helping to select and implement culturally relevant
prevention activities; and serving as local supervisors,
canvassers, phlebotomists, and interviewers.
Academic partners took primary responsibility
for data analysis and writing. Community
members reviewed and commented on fi ndings
and co-authored publications when desired.

Findings: TEAL data demonstrated that soil and
dust, rather than paint, are the primary residential
sources of lead in the Tar Creek area and that
the percent of children in the area with elevated
blood lead levels was substantially higher than
in comparable areas of the state and nation (1,

“Tribes have a history of having been studied by outsiders in a negative way. You have to overcome that knowledge and maybe
even personal experience with that history … You have to do things in person, not on the phone, until you have built trust. Go there
and be there.” —Academic Partner

PolicyLink

2). TEAL’s fi ndings also indicated that even fl oor
dust lead concentrations that are well below the
EPA standard could result in elevated blood lead
levels, particularly among children living in low-
income households (2). They further demonstrated
signifi cant improvements in health knowledge,
self-effi cacy, and practices over the two years, in
part as a result of the lay health worker intervention.

Getting to Action: TEAL’s concrete and
compelling data helped move lead poisoning
prevention to a more prominent position on
the community’s agenda and promoted related
public discussion. TEAL thus provided population-
based blood lead and environmental data to
the Governor’s Task Force on Tar Creek, a major
decision-making body charged with making
recommendations for the future of Tar Creek.

To determine a course of action to suggest to
the community, TEAL partners reviewed existing
regulations on mining waste and examined
enforcement issues. The partners also reviewed
other states’ blood lead screening policies and
learned how people in other states achieved their
policy change goals. Using visioning exercises and a
brainstorming process, the partners discussed policy
alternatives before agreeing to push for restrictions
on the use of mine tailings, mandatory blood
lead screening and reporting, and a state match
to federal Superfund spending. But community
buy-in was critical. As one participant noted,
“TEAL identifi ed potential policies but left it to
the community to decide on which to pursue.”

Although academic partners were careful not to
make recommendations for specifi c policies because
of the lobbying restrictions of their federal grant,
TEAL community partners played a much more
direct role, getting on the agenda of a county
commission meeting and writing numerous letters
to policymakers, several of which were published
as letters to the editor in local newspapers.

Clan Mothers and Fathers visited each tribal
government to urge passage of resolutions
supporting mandatory screening. They then
used these resolutions to persuade the Indian

Health Service to fully implement IHS screening
and reporting. The community partners
volunteered to help IHS by sending letters
notifying parents of blood lead testing results.

Policy Change Outcomes: TEAL is widely credited
with helping the Ottawa County Health Department
and Indian Health Services to fully implement
mandatory blood lead screening and parental
notifi cation for young children. TEAL Clan Mothers
and Fathers also played a major role in persuading
the DEQ and county offi cials to restrict use of mine
tailings on roads and in construction without proper
containment. In addition to the fi ning structure
imposed by the guidelines, TEAL helped to create
local social pressure for guidelines to be followed.

TEAL helped spur the county health department
to develop its own lead prevention efforts and
hire a former TEAL project research coordinator
as the lead educator for the department. More
than 3,600 education and outreach activities,
reaching close to 30,000 residents, were conducted
over a two-year project period (5). TEAL also
made important contributions to individual and
community capacity building. In addition to the
health educator previously mentioned, several
TEAL staff have become leaders in health-related
initiatives for tribal governments and other county
and federal agencies working in the region.

TEAL fi ndings were cited in a report about the
Tar Creek site written by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC)/Agency for Toxic
Substance and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and
presented to Congress (6). TEAL data were critical
in getting the EPA to provide HEPA vacuum
cleaners to the area’s tribes and to continue
remediation efforts. TEAL members served on
the Governor’s Task Force on Tar Creek, and TEAL
academic partners served as expert witnesses in
lawsuits on the health effects of mine tailings, all
of which have since been settled. TEAL’s voice, in
short, was critical in helping pressure the state to
provide matching cleanup funds for the Tar Creek
Superfund site and in getting federal attention
and action on this overlooked problem area.

“It evolved pretty quickly that we couldn’t just focus on individuals protecting themselves in this environment. We had to create
change in the environment as well.” — Academic Partner

PolicyLink

Barriers and Success Factors: Substantial time
was needed to address the profound cultural
differences between academic and community
partners and to overcome the historical distrust of
research that often is present in Indian Country.
The fact that many residents earned a living
selling the lead-rich mine tailings that TEAL
hoped to contain also presented a substantial
challenge, as did federal restrictions on lobbying
that came with TEAL’s NIH funding. On the plus
side, however, the project’s strong funding base
enabled the hiring and training of community
partners as local staff for long-term engagement
with the work. Many of these individuals also
acted effectively in their own citizen capacities in
letter writing and other advocacy activities (7).

Central to TEAL’s success was its reputation as a
legitimate and an independent source of high-
quality scientifi c data. Policymakers and local
organizations said these data were “of critical
importance in moving a number of policies
forward.” Other important success factors were
demonstrated leadership among community and
academic partners; and strategic alliances among
tribal leaders, state and local health department
personnel, and many local groups concerned
about the lead issue. Ultimately, regional lead
cleanup efforts stimulated community mobilization
in the Tar Creek area as, in the words of an
academic partner, the “sense of being ignored
and abandoned [by government in the cleanup
efforts] energized the community to action.”

Summary Refl ections: The TEAL partnership
successfully implemented a broad community-
based effort that collected critical data and used
both behavioral and policy change strategies to
prevent and control lead exposure in Ottawa
County. TEAL has been particularly effective within
the Native American community and among tribal
organizations. Although the residents of one Tar
Creek community, Picher, recently were forced
to move after a federal study showed serious
risks of subsidence (which was followed by a

devastating tornado), actors well beyond TEAL
are now involved in and committed to protecting
those residents who remain in the area from
the negative health effects of lead exposure, in
terms of both education and remediation. This
is a signifi cant part of the project’s legacy.

Contact Information:

Rebecca Jim
Executive Director
LEAD Agency, Inc.
19257 S. 4403 Drive
Vinita, OK 74301
918.256.5269
918.542.9399
rjim@neok.com

Michelle Kegler, DrPH
Associate Professor
Deputy Director, Prevention
Research Center
Emory University, Rollins
School of Public Health
Department of Behavioral
Sciences and Health Education
1518 Clifton Road NE
Atlanta, GA 30322
404.712.99

mkegler@sph.emory.edu

For Further Reading:

Kegler, M. C., and L. H. Malcoe. 2004. Results from
a lay health advisor intervention to prevent lead
poisoning among rural Native American children.
American Journal of Public Health 94(10):1730–35.

Kegler, M. C., R. Stern, S. Whitecrow-Ollis,
and L. H. Malcoe. 2003. Assessing lay health
advisor activity in an intervention to prevent lead
poisoning among Native American children.
Health Promotion Practice 4(2):189–96.

Petersen, D., M. Minkler, V. Breckwich Vásquez,
M. C. Kegler, L. H. Malcoe, and S. Whitecrow.
2007. Using community-based participatory
research to shape policy and prevent lead

exposure among Native children. Progress in
Community Health Partnerships 1:249–56.

Singer, H., and M. C. Kegler. 2004. Assessing
interorganizational networks as a dimension
of community capacity: Illustrations from a
community intervention to prevent lead poisoning.
Health Education and Behavior 31(6):808–21.

“TEAL identifi ed potential policies but left it to the community to decide on which to pursue.”

—Academic Partner

PolicyLink
35

Case Study #7:

Improving school conditions
by changing public policy
in South Los Angeles:
The Community Coalition Partnership

With an estimated 694,000 students in a public
school system second in size only to New York
City’s, Los Angeles, California, has long faced gross
disparities in the physical environments in which
youth receive an education (1). This disparity has
rarely been more apparent than in a dramatic CBPR
effort in the late 1990s to study and bring attention
to the deplorable condition of schools in South Los
Angeles, and the fact that a large, newly passed
school bond would likely exacerbate the disparities
between affl uent and poor neighborhood schools.

Bordered on two sides by freeways and home to
more than half a million people, South Central
LA (now called South Los Angeles or South LA) is
perhaps best known for civil unrest in the spring of
1992, following the acquittal of white police offi cers
in the racially charged Rodney King beating case.
The court’s decision sparked the looting and burning
down of some 200 of the area’s 728 liquor stores
(2). This tragedy also created a valuable opportunity
for a community-based organization that had been
established two years earlier to address alcohol and
drug problems and to effect policy change in South
LA through grassroots community organizing.

The Community Coalition for Substance Abuse
Prevention and Treatment, or CCSAPT (now known
simply as the Community Coalition), began the
“Campaign to Rebuild South Central LA without
Liquor Stores,” which in turn was credited with
preventing the rebuilding of 150 alcohol outlets and
helping spur the conversion of 44 liquor outlets to
community-friendly businesses such as laundromats.
Most of these continue to thrive today (2). The
campaign also helped establish the Community
Coalition as a powerful voice for health-promoting
public policy. Now boasting 5,000 dues-paying
members, the Community Coalition frequently
has combined CBPR with grassroots organizing
to achieve larger policy change objectives (3).
The successful Coalition-led campaign to study
conditions in South LA schools and to get $153
million—most of it from a recent school bond—
reallocated for repairs and other improvements in
South LA schools exemplifi es these efforts (4).

The Partnership: Since its founding in 1990, the
Community Coalition has worked closely with an
evaluation team at Imoyase Research Group Inc.,
a nonprofi t program evaluation and consultation
organization, and its CEO/founder, a professor
of psychology at Loyola Marymount University.
Community-based participatory research has
been a central part of the partnership’s mode of
operation, with “community-driven research”
described by the Coalition and its academic partners
as central to the success of their collaborative
work. The partners also share a commitment
to youth development and empowerment,
and the Coalition’s youth group, South Central
Youth Empowered through Action (SC-YEA), has
played a key role in several partnership efforts.

Research Methods: The Community Coalition
partnership has used a variety of research methods,
including randomly sampled, door-to-door
neighborhood needs assessments; GIS mapping; and
secondary data analysis. The schools improvement
project involved a survey administered by SC-YEA
youth to 1,500 public school students, focus groups
with parents, and a modifi ed Photovoice project (5).
As part of the data collection process, 60 students
were given inexpensive cameras to document

“[The campaign’s success] was a combination of good, solid, strategic community organizing backed by hard data they collected to
substantiate the claim regarding the need for redistribution of funds.” —Academic Partner

PolicyLink

risks in the school environment. The students
then discussed the photos and selected pictures
for later use in policy action (6). Taking advantage
of the opportunity provided by a recently passed
school bond measure, Proposition BB, in-house,
policy-focused research was conducted as well to
understand key city and state agencies responsible
for implementing the legislation and the policy
environment in which it would be implemented.

Findings: The survey of 1,500 teens was expected
to identify racism, the quality of education, and
teacher-student relationships as key areas of
student concern. Instead, by far the greatest issue
identifi ed was the physical condition of the schools,
many of which had leaky roofs and bathrooms
with nonfunctioning sinks and toilets. In one high
school, a single working toilet served the entire
student body of 3,000. The “Photovoice” project,
which produced more than 200 pictures, vividly
portrayed many of these problems—overfl owing
toilets, exposed wires, missing cement tiles, and
corroded water fountains (6). The youth conducted
additional research in the schools and developed
a detailed list of plant and grounds problems.

Lastly, the partnership’s policy research revealed
that, while most of the Proposition BB money had
been allocated for air conditioning in the wealthier
San Fernando Valley schools (leading critics to dub
the measure “Proposition AC”), the small amount
set aside for inner-city schools was earmarked
mainly for security guards and window bars.

Getting to Action: Soon after the data-
gathering phase of the project, the partnership
used its fi ndings to create public and policymaker
awareness of twin issues: the terrible condition
of South LA schools and the grossly inequitable
resource distribution under the new school bond
measure. Many of the 200 pictures from the SC-
YEA Photovoice project were displayed as part
of a demonstration at a meeting of the school
district’s oversight committee. In the words of a
local political fi gure overseeing the meeting, “The
students were very effective. They were angry, but
they didn’t come across as angry. They created a
presentation, and they did it very respectfully” (4).

Since part of the Coalition’s strategy was, in the
words of a journalist, “to shame the school district
into doing the right thing,” the group reached out
to the media by writing numerous press releases
and arranging school “walk-arounds” for a Los
Angeles Times columnist accompanied by SC-YEA
students. The Photovoice project garnered national
coverage of the issue when it was featured in People
magazine (6). Numerous meetings with government
offi cials or staffers were held to share study fi ndings
and advocate for change. Coalition staff and SC-
YEA youth testifi ed more than a dozen times at
hearings and committee and school board meetings.

The Coalition and its partners’ policy advocacy was
effective in part because of the careful preparatory
research that preceded it. They consequently did a
careful mapping of the policy environment, along
with key players and pressure points. Although
the academic partners’ role was less visible in the
policy advocacy aspects of the work, they held
trainings for Coalition staff and youth members
throughout the process, participated in a detailed
strategic planning process, collected needed policy-
related information that was sometimes diffi cult
for community partners to gather, and used a
detailed archiving system to compile relevant
information from newspapers and other sources.
The academic partners also worked with the
Coalition to develop short-, middle-, and long-term
goals to guide the organization’s future work.

Policy Change Outcomes: The Coalition and
its partners’ documentation of the deteriorating
conditions in South LA schools, together with
their background research on the planned use of
Proposition BB monies, effective organizing, and
media and policy advocacy, was widely credited
with the reopening of repair and construction
contracts made in conjunction with the $2.4 billion
bond. Roughly $100 million was reallocated for
repairs in schools in South LA and other inner-city
neighborhoods, supplemented by $153 million
from other sources. Media accounts and local
political fi gures cited the role of the Coalition and
teenagers involved in the partnership’s project
as having played a major role in bringing about
this investment (5). Approximately 1,800 repairs

“I think they have altered the process of decision making. When [policymakers] get ready to do things they say, ‘What do you think
the Coalition is going to say? Maybe we should run this by [the Coalition].’” —Academic Partner

PolicyLink

were made to address the problems brought to
light by the Coalition study. These efforts in turn
helped lay the groundwork for a subsequent bond
measure and a successful lawsuit that brought
$750 million to low-income communities in and
around Los Angeles for new school construction.

The Coalition’s victories also contributed to
youth empowerment. In the words of one
SC-YEA participant, “For us to go down
there and protest and talk to people … the
Community Coalition showed me I can make
a difference around my neighborhood.”

The school district also made changes in its
operating procedures in the wake of the campaign,
hosting an annual gathering of hundreds of
interested students and also regularly having
students present their concerns at school board
meetings (3). In the end, the successful schools
campaign enhanced the perception of the
Coalition as a major player in the local political
arena. As one observer commented, “When
[policymakers] get ready to do things, they ask,
‘What do you think the Coalition is going to say?
Maybe we should run this by the Coalition.’”

Barriers and Success Factors: The Coalition’s work
was not without obstacles. “Publicly available”
information (e.g., municipal budget allocations) was
sometimes withheld from the community partner
despite repeated efforts to obtain it; sometimes
access to information required the intervention of
the academic partner. Several students involved
in exposing poor conditions at their school faced
retaliation by their principal, and in one case,
a senior’s transcripts were held up, potentially
jeopardizing his admission to college. Although adult
intervention ended this standoff in the student’s
favor, the incident was a reminder of the personal
obstacles that may be confronted in such work.

Counterbalancing such challenges, however, was
the very visible and powerful role of the Coalition,
its history of success on important community-
driven issues (2, 7), its large membership base, and
increasingly, its youth program. Several policymakers,
prominent business leaders, and the mass media

commented on the signifi cant role of the SC-YEA
youth in the budget reallocation decision and the
school improvements that followed (4). Regular
youth involvement at city council meetings and in
other venues and the Coalition’s adept use of media
advocacy also contributed to the group’s success.

Summary Refl ections: Education and school
quality have strong links to health, with recent
studies suggesting that education is indeed even
more important than income as a contributor
to adverse health outcomes, including lower
life expectancy (8). The Community Coalition’s
efforts to improve the deteriorating South LA
schools for and with youth helped improve the
physical environments in which children grow
up and learn, in the process improving their
chances for leading healthy and productive lives.

The Coalition continues to work in a variety of areas,
from kinship care policy through land use to social
services delivery, welfare reform, and community
economic development. Further, and as a testament,
in part, to its broad base of community support,
the organization’s former executive director, Karen
Bass, stepped down to run for State Assembly—and
was elected by a wide margin in November 2004.
Assemblywoman Bass, who went on to become
the fi rst African American woman Speaker of the
House in 2008, stated that her decision to run for
public offi ce signaled not only her belief in the
strength and sustainability of the Coalition, but
also in the need to provide another avenue for the
organization and the broader community to have
access to power and to keep lawmakers’ “feet
to the fi re” in being responsive to their base.

Contact Information:

Marqueece Harris-Dawson
Executive Director
Community Coalition
8101 S. Vermont Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90044
323.750.9087
marqueece@southla.org

Cheryl Grills, PhD
Professor
Loyola Marymount University
University Hall 4747
310.338.3016
cgrills@lmu.edu

“[The Coalition] did a lot of investigative work to understand who the key players were in the process, where there were points of
potential impact from a policy perspective, [and] what needed to be done both from an organizing standpoint and from a research

standpoint to make some type of inroad into that pressure point.” —Academic Partner

38
PolicyLink
For Further Reading:

Foege, A., and V. Sheff-Cahan. 1999. Picture
imperfect. People, November 29.

Lopez-Garza, M. 2001. State of South Los
Angeles 1990–2010: A Community Coalition
Perspective. Los Angeles: Community Coalition.

Saurwein, K., and K. A. Haynes. 1999.
Schools have no trouble identifying the LA
school district’s most pressing problems.
Los Angeles Times, October 15, p. 2.

Case Study #8:

Making the Healthy Choice
the Easy Choice:
A Healthy Communities CBPR
Partnership in New Castle, Indiana

Best known for many years as a center of
automobile parts manufacturing, New Castle,
Indiana, is a rural community that experienced
economic hardships with the declines in the
American automobile industry. However, New
Castle also “has a history of helping itself and
using the resources available” (1). This attitude
is refl ected in its formation, 25 years ago, of a
Healthy Cities Committee (HCC). Part of a statewide
Healthy Cities initiative, the HCC was designed
to promote the health of the town through
multisectoral collaboration. With representatives
from health and social services, government,
business, the arts, environmental concerns, the
media, and transportation, as well as ordinary
citizens, the HCC attempted to build on local
assets to address shared health problems in ways
that were tailored to the local community.

The Partnership: In the mid-1990s, funded through
an initial grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation,
the HCC began a community-based participatory
research collaboration with four faculty members at

“The [Coalition] wanted to be a player at the table… in order to ensure that the community voice was part of any discourse on
issues that would impact the community. I think they have accomplished that.” —Academic Partner

PolicyLink

the Indiana University School of Nursing. Their goal
was to craft a study and follow-up action agenda
that would help “make the healthy choice the easy
choice,” in part by getting the town’s decision
makers and the general public to think about the
potential health impacts of any policies or programs
being considered. Rather than crafting specifi c
policy goals, the partnership hoped to undertake
research and action that would help catalyze a host
of “small p” policy changes that didn’t necessarily
require legislative change but would still broadly and
cumulatively improve the health of the community.

Research Methods: The academic partner
conducted secondary analysis of Census data to
compare New Castle’s morbidity and mortality rates
and other health indicators to national fi gures. A
door-to-door survey then was distributed to 1,000
households identifi ed through non-probability
quota sampling. HCC members helped with the
wording of survey questions, data collection, and
interpretation and use of fi ndings. The partners
presented fi ndings at town hall meetings and
sought community input on the meaning and
signifi cance of the survey and Census data analyses.
A follow-up survey two years later used many of
the same questions, and an additional survey of
sixth and 11th graders was undertaken to involve
young people in the process. To help build capacity
as well as broadly disseminate study fi ndings,
focus groups and a statewide workshop were
held with sessions on data interpretation, priority
setting, and policy-structured actions (1, 2).

Findings: The survey of close to 500 residents
revealed a troubling portrait of health problems
and unhealthy behaviors in New Castle, including
high rates of smoking (32.2 percent—twice the
National Health Promotion Objective of below 15
percent)—and unhealthy dietary choices. While
study participants scored well in a few areas
(e.g., 36.6 percent reported regular and vigorous
exercise), considerable room for improvement was
apparent. Almost 27 percent of study participants
reported getting no regular exercise, close to 40
percent failed to seek medical care when needed
because of the cost, and many people reported
depressive symptoms. Finally, Census data analysis

showed New Castle’s rates of cancer, heart disease,
and stroke to be above the national average. After
the survey and public discussion of its fi ndings, the
academic partner commented that “the community
had different ownership of health. They no longer
saw it as the domain of doctors and nurses. They
had the feeling they could do more about health.”

Getting to Action: Based on their discussion of
the fi ndings and insider knowledge of other health
issues of importance to the community, HCC took
the lead in identifying fi ve priority health issues
for action (1). To reduce smoking rates, it led a
successful effort to get an ordinance banning
indoor smoking in public buildings. To promote
children’s exercise in a safe environment, HCC
mobilized 1,200 residents who, with support
from the Department of Parks and Recreation,
worked for seven eight-hour days to replace a
deteriorating play structure and build a beautiful
new park. The community partner (later renamed
Healthy Communities of Henry County, or HCHC)
also played a major role in a comprehensive land
use planning effort, including an ambitious plan,
supported in part by a new food and beverage
tax, to build a “web of trails” crisscrossing the
county (3) to encourage walking and biking.

In each of these efforts, the partners did their
homework. With respect to the anti-smoking
ordinance, for example, they moved incrementally,
considering “what would work in our idiosyncratic
community.” And before mounting the web of
trails initiative, HCHC members studied a similar
effort in Ohio to learn from that experience.

Policy Change Outcomes: In addition to
successfully advocating for the indoor smoking
ban, the partnership raised $950,000 from the
state Department of Transportation and other
government grants, totaling more than$1.3
million in support of the trails initiative. Under
the leadership of the HCHC, town residents
have planted more than 5,000 trees along the
trails and other locations to help improve air
quality and promote outdoor activity (2, 3).

“We wanted to get health on the agenda of city council meetings, school board meetings, etc., so in meetings, they always ask,
“What’s the health impact?” —Academic Partner

40
PolicyLink

Barriers and Success Factors: The diffi culties
inherent in getting change in environments like New
Castle were well summarized by one partner who
remarked, “In Indiana, you can’t tell people what to
do. That’s why we have no motorcycle helmet law.”
Geographic factors also proved challenging, with
the academic partner taking a job at a considerable
distance from New Castle soon after the research
project had been completed. The community
partner operated on a very small budget, with
no paid staff for most of the time this work took
place. Finally, and inevitably, not all of the action
efforts succeeded, causing some discouragement
among people who had worked hard on these
issues. An attempt to get a new skate park in an
area favored by local teenage boys failed to pass the
city council despite a large turnout and the active
engagement of a number of the town’s youth.

On the positive side, a strong sense of community
and the fact that much work “happens informally”
in a town this size were major contributors to
project success. Strong awareness and appreciation
of the community partner and its work also were
evident, with elected offi cials, the media, and
others pointing to the role of the HCHC, and
its early community-academic partnership, in
catalyzing health-promoting legislation and action
that may lead to improved health outcomes down
the line. Perhaps as important, these efforts have
led to a more engaged citizenry. In recounting
the effort to get approval for the skate park, for
example, a community leader commented:

“The city council chambers were packed. Sixty
percent of the people there were teenage
boys. Getting teenage boys to a city council
meeting; to care what mayor got elected this
year; to care about what was happening at City

Council … that is just engaging citizens. I think
it is so much a part of healthy communities.”

Summary Refl ections: The New Castle case
study offers a fascinating example of the kind of
sustainable change that can take place long after
an offi cial community-academic partnership has
completed its work. Although most of the action
outcomes described fall under the heading of
“small p” policy changes, the HCHC has clearly
been effective in working with other community
members and to get government entities to make
or support changes conducive to health. More than
a decade after the original community-academic
partnership completed its formal work, the action
component of this effort continues to thrive.

Contact Information:

Doug Mathis, Administrator
Henry County Health
Department
1201 Race Street, Suite 208
New Castle, IN 47362
765.521.7060
dmathis@henryco.net

Joanne Rains Warner, PhD
Dean, School of Nursing
University of Portland
5000 N. Willamette
Boulevard
Portland, OR 97203
503.943.7509
warner@up.edu

For Further Reading:

Minkler, M., V. Breckwich Vásquez, J. Warner, H.
Steussey, and S. Facente. 2006. Sowing the seeds for
sustainable change: A community-university research
and action partnership in Indiana and its aftermath.
Health Promotion International 21(4):293–300.

Rains, J. W., and D. W. Ray. 1995. Participatory
action research for community health
promotion. Public Health Nursing 12:256–61.

“Getting teenage boys to a city council meeting; to care what mayor got elected this year; to care what was happening at the city
council … that was engaging citizens. I think it is so much a part of healthy communities.” —Community Partner

PolicyLink
41

Case Study #9:

Empowering New Mexico’s Young
People in Public Policymaking:
Youth Link and Masters in Public Health
Program, University of New Mexico

New Mexico is a highly diverse state where
two-thirds of counties are rural and more
than half the population lives in underserved
communities of color, principally Hispanic (44
percent) and Native American (9.7 percent) (1).
Ranked 40th among states in per capita income,
almost 14 percent of New Mexico’s people live
in poverty, and 21.5 percent have no health
insurance (2, 3). Arrest rates for driving while
intoxicated (DWI) and for teenage pregnancy
are also among the highest in the country.

Over the past 14 years, members of the statewide
Youth Link leadership program have identifi ed drunk
driving, teenage pregnancy, and poverty, along
with tobacco and substance abuse, violence, crime,
youth-police relations, gangs, and other school-
related problems, as key concerns to the state’s
youth. While youth voices often remain unheard
or unrepresented in important policy decisions and
processes, Youth Link participants have helped to
change this culture in New Mexico. The program’s
young people have taken part in policy advocacy

trainings, conducted research, and infl uenced state
and local policies to improve their communities
and promote youth health across the state.

The Partnership: Youth Link began in
1994 with funding from the W. K. Kellogg
Foundation, establishing 14 youth Community
Action Teams (CATs) representing New Mexico’s
diverse communities of youth ages 12–21 and
focused on issues of key concern to local youth.
Although the number of CATs was later reduced
to just four because of a funding hiatus and
changes from foundation to public funding, the
organization of a statewide Youth Town Hall had
already enabled Youth Link to establish itself.
In its role as a statewide leadership program,
it aims to help youth become “active, aware,
and concerned citizens who are engaged in the
political process” and mobilized around state
and local policy issues, with a recent focus on
tobacco control and violence prevention (4).

During its fi rst few years of operation, Youth
Link was engaged with academic partners at the
University of New Mexico’s Masters in Public Health
Program in an in-depth participatory evaluation
that focused both on youth capacity building
and empowerment and on policy outcomes on
the state and local levels. That seven-year multi-
method evaluation, along with subsequent tracking
of the project’s policy-focused research and
accomplishments, offered an excellent window
into the processes and outcomes of this unique
statewide program and its academic partnership.
In the form of CBPR known as participatory
evaluation, the academically trained evaluator
acts as a coach, mentor, and facilitator in helping
community partners think through their goals and
objectives, including policy goals and objectives;
identify and build their skills and capacities (e.g.,
in public speaking and strategic planning); and use
these to help carry out research and action plans.
In Youth Link, UNM worked collaboratively with
program staff to develop the overarching evaluation
logic model (a conceptual model showing how
an intervention is expected to achieve desired
outcomes), and coached the CATs to develop
their own goals and objectives. At annual retreats

“We met with the mayor. He tried to meet with us once a month, which I think was a good thing, an important one because from
the get-go you feel you are actually important.” —Youth Participant

PolicyLink

and statewide training sessions, the participating
CATs engaged with the academic partner in
collaborative analysis and evaluation of their and
the partnership’s effectiveness in achieving their
goals and objectives to refl ect on their successes and
challenges and to develop the next year’s plans.

Research Methods: With the assistance of adult
volunteer coordinators, the CATs researched their
communities’ problems and met in regional trainings
and statewide gatherings to analyze policy issues
that affected New Mexican youth. The CATs began
by conducting focus groups with their peers to
identify the priority issues facing New Mexico’s
young people. Additional policy-focused needs
assessment data were collected through the three-
day town hall that followed, and in which 145
youth and 20 adults participated (5). Youth Link
members conducted secondary analysis of KIDS
Count Data and data from the state Department
of Health. They have also developed, implemented,
and analyzed surveys over the years to better
understand the concerns of youth as well as of
businesses and other community members.

The participatory evaluation that was central to
Youth Link’s work in the early years of the project
explored three levels of program effectiveness:
changes in the political effi cacy and civic behaviors
of youth participants, capacity changes in the CATs
to engage their communities, and policy impacts
at the local and state levels. Multiple evaluation
methods were used to assess the research question
of how this Youth Link model could create
policy change, through empowering youth in
policy advocacy processes. A detailed evaluation
instrument was developed by program staff, youth,
and their academic partners and used to survey
youth members at the beginning of the program
and after two years. Other evaluation activities
included annual focus groups with Youth Link CAT
participants, adult interviews of local CAT mentors,
review of project documents, and tracking of
program accomplishments at the annual retreats (6).

Findings: Youth Link’s regional focus groups
highlighted a number of issues about which New
Mexico’s youth were particularly concerned, among
them substance abuse, violence, crime, gangs,

school issues, and teen pregnancy. The focus
groups also probed perceived root causes of these
problems, including racism and discrimination,
lack of adult support and role models, poor
environments and poverty, youth self-esteem,
and relationship violence. These fi ndings were
corroborated at the statewide Youth Town Hall
meeting that took place at the end of year two,
and at which participants developed a series of
recommendations based on their fi ndings.

Participatory evaluation with the academic partner
pointed to the importance of the Youth Town
Hall as a catalyzing experience for youth policy
action; the role of supportive adults; the creation
of a state-level group identity; and education in
policy skills. Youth Link participants experienced
an increase in their sense of effi cacy, community,
voice, and leadership and demonstrated greater
levels of involvement in political processes.

Getting to Action: At the end of the second
year, youth facilitators from the Albuquerque
CAT led a three-day residential Youth Town Hall,
whose outcomes framed Youth Link’s policy and
action agenda for the next several years. The
youth identifi ed several action areas on which
they wanted to work for policy and other systems
change: increased youth presence on school
boards; reform of suspension and expulsion
policies; increased condom distribution in schools;
more drug-, alcohol-, and tobacco-free alternative
activities; and a lowering of the voting age to 16.

To translate their recommendations into action,
several CATs developed “study bills” or memorials
for the state legislature, formally requesting, for
example, that the health department be charged
with studying the relationship between school sex
education and teen pregnancy rates. Also at the
state level, Youth Link worked both one-on-one
and in testimony before the legislature to educate
elected offi cials on the importance of maintaining
funding levels for youth prevention programs
that were being threatened by budget cuts.

In addition to working within their own statewide
network, the Youth Link partnership was actively
involved in numerous youth and issue coalitions,

“The community began seeing these young people as positive forces instead of just being the problem. They could see these
young people out there creating a solution for themselves instead of just asking for people to do something for them.”
—Community Partner

PolicyLink

including Youth Empowerment Advocacy Heroes
(YEAH! Coalition), for which it publishes a semi-
annual newsletter that covers the policy and
service activities of coalition groups across the
state (4). Through this collaborative work and
its own efforts to educate legislators and work
for municipal and state level changes, it helped
achieve a number of impressive victories.

Policy Change Outcomes: On the local level,
Youth Link CATs and their partners helped get a
citywide smoke-free ordinance in Albuquerque
and restrictions on tobacco product placement in
Santa Fe. In Las Cruces, Youth Link members were
similarly instrumental in persuading the mayor’s
offi ce to support the public funding of a skate
park. On the state level, one of the three memorials
put forward (requesting research on alternatives
to student suspension and expulsion and their
effects on dropout rates), was commissioned
and conducted, and Youth Link was credited
with playing a major role in the decision (5, 7).
Additionally, the partnership has helped get bills
introduced before the legislature on a range of
issues, including teen DWI offenders, restrictions
on tobacco, homeless youth resources, gun safety,
suicide prevention, and school safety. In 2006,
Youth Link and coalition partners experienced a
major win in getting a statewide ban passed on
smoking in indoor workplaces and public spaces (4).

Barriers and Success Factors: The sheer logistics
of coordinating a statewide effort in a largely rural
state, particularly when the project is youth driven,
posed substantial challenges to Youth Link and
its academic partners and adult allies. Turnover of
youth and adult program staff and mentors also led
to some discontinuities and setbacks (5–7). Finally,
a substantial cut in funding after the fi rst few years,
coupled with the categorical nature of new state
funding, circumscribed somewhat the areas in which
the partnership could focus. However, substantial
early foundation funding—including support for
an evaluator/coach who could work closely with
the youth over several years and engage them in
participatory evaluation from the outset—greatly

contributed to the partnership’s ability to receive
continuous feedback, track impacts, and help attract
additional funding. The interest, commitment, and
leadership skills of a core group of youth in diverse
parts of the state were also of seminal importance
to the project’s success, as were a number of adult
allies and mentors and supportive policymakers.

Summary Refl ections: Now entering its 15th
year, Youth Link is viewed by policymakers as a
key partner in developing youth policy. Although
its funding today somewhat restricts the policy
areas in which it can focus (e.g., tobacco and
substance abuse prevention), the statewide
leadership organization continues to thrive and
provide new training opportunities for members.

Youth Link today has member groups in 46
communities across the state (4). Some youth
participants have become well-known at the capital
and take pride in the fact that state legislators
call them by name. Lessons from the Youth Link
experience include the central roles played by
adult allies, youth dialogue and refl ection, and
measurement of youth political development
as well as policy outcomes. With the impressive
gains in collective and political effi cacy among
participating youth and substantial policy successes,
Youth Link is well on its way to developing the
“next generation of advocates” for New Mexico.

Contact Information:

Kwaka Sraha, BA,
Program Manager
Youth Link
New Mexico Voices
for Children
2340 Alamo Road SE, #120
Albuquerque, NM 87106
505.244.9505 x20
ksraha@nmvoices.org

Nina Wallerstein, DrPH, MPH
Director, Center for
Participatory Research and
Professor, MPH Program
Department of Family and
Community Medicine
University of New Mexico
Health Sciences Ctr.
MSC09 5040
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
505.272.4173
nwallerstein@salud.unm.edu

“Youth are so often disenfranchised, and this program created opportunities for them, with the aid of supportive adults, to fi nd
and study their issues, come up with policy objectives, work for those objectives, and have their voices heard by policymakers.”

—Academic Partner

44
PolicyLink
For Further Reading:

Springett, J., and N. Wallerstein. 2008. Issues in
Participatory Evaluation. In Community-Based
Participatory Research for Health: From Process
to Outcomes, 2nd Edition, eds. M. Minkler and
N. Wallenstein. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Wallerstein, N. 2002. Empowerment to
reduce health disparities. Scandinavian
Journal of Public Health 30:72–77.

Case Study #10

Reintegrating Drug Users
Leaving Jail and Prison:
Harlem Community and
Academic Partnership

The communities of Central and East Harlem
have been deeply affected by the reintegration of
community members who have served time in jail
or prison. An estimated 6,000 to 7,500 inmates are
released back into these communities every year,
and half of them are re-incarcerated within a year
(1). The intersection of reentry issues with substance
abuse—the long-time focus of the Harlem Urban
Research Center (URC)—led its Policy Work Group
(PWG) to identify reintegration of drug users after
incarceration as a priority concern. Refl ecting on
barriers to reintegration and their connections
to larger issues of poverty, unemployment,
addiction, education, and mental health, the PWG
undertook a broader policy approach to address
these deeper problems. The group, now called the
Harlem Community and Academic Partnership,
reframed the issue of reentry in a public health
light and focused on changing harmful policies
and developing programs to support successful
reintegration and prevent re-incarceration (1, 2).

The Partnership: In 1996, the Center for Urban
Epidemiological Studies (CUES) in New York
received a CDC Urban Research Center grant
that supported the development of “innovative
strategies to improve the health of urban and

“I think I would attribute the success [of the Harlem Community and Academic Partnership] to tenacious people who really care
about this issue.” —Academic Partner

PolicyLink

low-income populations.” Eventually renamed the
Harlem Urban Research Center and more recently,
the Harlem Community and Academic Partnership
(HCAP), it was composed of partner organizations
including the New York City Department of Health,
the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM), and a
Community Action Board (CAB) with representatives
from local service providers, city health
organizations, advocacy groups, and residents.

When the grant was fi rst awarded, CUES’
academic and health department partners had few
connections to the Harlem community. However,
as the group’s leadership evolved and through the
development and subsequent activism of the CAB,
the collaboration adopted a CBPR partnership
approach and decided to focus on substance
abuse in the Harlem community. To ensure that the
partnership’s research was translated into action,
the CAB developed its own PWG. After extensive
research and refl ection on substance abuse and
related issues, the PWG decided to focus on
reintegrating former inmates into the community.
Although the PWG was defunded in 2004, it has
continued to meet and help translate its fi ndings
into changes in programs, practices, and policies.

Research Methods: The PWG and URC went
through several phases of research and planning
to identify the problem and defi ne their focus for
policy change. The PWG conducted a review of
the literature and media coverage and undertook
secondary analysis of public data on substance
use and incarceration. The PWG also gathered
background information from CAB members
and policy experts to understand the issue from
lay and policy perspectives. Next, the PWG
conducted focus groups with 36 substance users
and former inmates and a survey of 79 substance
abuse service providers. This research revealed
key policies and release procedures that could be
targeted for change. Later, the PWG used public
opinion research, adding a question on reentry to
an existing poll of New York City residents (3).

Findings: Focus groups with former inmates
suggested that people leaving jail or prison were
not adequately prepared for release or provided
with the necessary support to reenter their

communities as healthy and productive members
of society. The service provider survey revealed
consensus on the positive and negative effects
of specifi c policies affecting substance users and
inmates. More than half of the participating
providers pointed to 11 policies they believed
harmed their clients. These policies involved drug
treatment, correctional system processes, and
Medicaid benefi ts. The PWG’s other research
approaches also provided greater understanding
of health issues; incarceration trends; the legal
requirements in providing services and benefi ts
to former inmates; the state of public opinion on
reintegration; and the willingness of policymakers
to support the PWG’s policy goals (1, 2).

Getting to Action: Through community forums
and facilitated discussions with community
members and other stakeholders, the PWG shared
its fi ndings, reinforcing strong community interest
in reintegration and helping the partnership hone
its goals and policy targets. The PWG reframed
substance abuse and inmate reentry as a public
health issue and brought together a broader
citywide coalition, the Community Reintegration
Network (CRN), which pushed for action from
the New York City Council and the mayor.

Because much effective policy work requires
addressing funding, the PWG advocated for and
used a cost study from the city government to better
understand the public fi nance of incarceration.
The fi ndings from this study allowed the PWG
to argue that the city would save money by
providing better support for inmate reintegration.

Partnership members used their data and the
city’s fi ndings to discuss potential cost savings
and promote their proposals. By speaking at
city council hearings, producing and distributing
policy reports, and developing 12 key
recommendations for change, the PWG and its
allies made a strong case for realistic and doable
changes in programs, policies, and practices.

Policy Change Outcomes: The Policy Work
Group and the Community Reintegration Network
it helped create are credited with having played
a major role in several key victories. They were

“By moving from the individual and community to the municipal policy level, we have been able to make jail reentry a policy issue
in New York, if not on the front burner then at least in the middle of the stove rather than way back.”

—Academic Partner

PolicyLink

instrumental in persuading the Department of
Correction to release many more inmates during
daylight hours rather than at 3:00a.m. and offering
people leaving jail “a bus ride to a drug treatment,
housing, or employment program rather than
release in a subway stop frequented by drug dealers,
prostitutes, and a Dunkin’ Donuts outlet” (3). The
PWG indeed played a key role in helping to get
a 2004 law requiring the department to provide
discharge planning services to people leaving New
York City jails. Additional provisions enacted the
following year expanded services to assist people
leaving jail to fi nd housing, drug treatment, and
employment; the provisions also allocated city
funds to community organizations to provide these
services. Despite inadequate funding, advocates
believed the law set an important precedent.

Finally, the PWG fi gured prominently in helping
secure the passage of a bill by the New York State
Legislature that reinstated Medicaid coverage
to inmates upon their release, replacing the
previous policy that terminated benefi ts upon
incarceration. Representatives of the Policy Work
Group and the CRN have remained active as
part of a three-year municipal Strategic Planning
Initiative and in other ways continue to work
for policy and practice changes that can make
a difference in improving the odds for recently
released inmates to return successfully—and lead
full and productive lives in the community.

Barriers and Success Factors: Federal budget
cuts, which resulted in defunding the Harlem URC
and its Policy Work Group in 2004, posed a strong
challenge to the partnership since several of the
project’s policy goals and activities had yet to come
to fruition. However, these funding constraints
were counterbalanced by the group’s commitment
to continuing to meet and work, as well as by
individuals and partner institutions donating
time, space, and supplies. Finally, the partnership
benefi ted from external pressures. For example,
banking giant Citibank, which wanted to redevelop
the area where inmates were traditionally released,
also pressured the city to change to daylight release,
as a means of enabling the former inmates to more
easily disperse to other parts of the community.

Summary Refl ections: As previously suggested,
the PWG and Harlem URC’s impressive research
and policy accomplishments are all the more
notable because many were achieved after formal
funding had ended. When asked how they were
able to sustain their partnership efforts, participants
responded that they believed in the work, lived in
Harlem, cared about one another, and supported
the process and long-term goals of the group.
Their work provides a good example of the need
for committing to CBPR efforts over the long haul,
often beyond a budgeted project period, if the goal
is to effect policy and systems change. This case
study, however, also is a reminder of the need to
forge untraditional alliances in policy-focused work.

Contact Information:

Ann-Gel S. Palermo, MPH
Associate Director
of Operations
Center for Multicultural
& Community Affairs
Mount Sinai School
of Medicine
1 Gustave Levy
Place – Box 1035
New York, NY 10029
212.241.8886
ann-gel.palermo@mssm.edu

Nicholas Freudenberg,DrPH
Distinguished Professor
of Urban Public Health
Hunter College/City
University of New York
425 East 25th Street,
New York, NY 10010
212.481.43

nfreuden@hunter.cuny.edu

For Further Reading:

Freudenberg, N., M. A. Rogers, C. Ritas,
and M. Nerney. 2005. Policy analysis and
advocacy: An approach to community-
based participatory research. In Methods in
Community-Based Participatory Research for
Health, eds. B. A. Israel, E. Eng, A. J. Schulz,
and E. A. Parker. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

van Olphen, J., N. Freudenberg, S. Galea, Ann-Gel
Palermo, and C. Ritas. 2003. Advocating policies
to promote community reintegration of drug
users leaving jail: A case study of fi rst steps in a
policy change campaign guided by community-
based participatory research. In Community-Based
Participatory Research for Health, eds. M. Minkler
and N. Wallerstein. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

“This was the fi rst time reentry and health-related consequences had been put together. It was defi nitely a unique perspective and
a more comprehensive perspective. They (HCAP) have in-depth knowledge of the issue. They knew the system and what was going
on. They offered recommendations on how to fi x it.” —City Council Member

PolicyLink
47

This monograph provided 10 illustrative case
studies of community-based participatory research
partnerships that appear to have contributed to
policy- or systems-level change in their communities
or regions. These outcomes ranged from helping
to achieve a 75 percent reduction in allowable
cancer risk from toxic emissions (in South Los
Angeles) to reinstating Medicaid for prisoners
in New York immediately after their release and
helping ensure their release is during daylight
hours rather than in the middle of the night.

The changes observed also included subtle victories,
such as getting New Castle, Indiana, to enact a
series of “small p” policy changes designed to
promote a healthy community. Healthy Communities
of Henry County used its CBPR study results and
years of follow-up work to secure substantial
funding and widespread political and community
support for creating a web of walking and biking
trails that would connect key points of interest
in this sprawling rural community and promote
physical fi tness and environmental improvements.

Additionally, the very nature of CBPR work, with
its emphasis on building alliances and frequently

working in coalition with numerous actors and
stakeholders, makes singling out the role of the
community, academic, or health department
partnerships in helping to achieve a policy victory all
but impossible. Although we have attempted in this
monograph to highlight the ways in which CBPR
partnerships appear to contribute to one or more
policy or systems changes, we do so cautiously,
underscoring in each case that we are analyzing
connections and contributions and not attributing
contributions to the partnership’s efforts alone.

Our task in this regard was sometimes made
more diffi cult by challenges faced in studying
the partnership’s potential contributions to policy
change efforts. Among these challenges was the
reluctance of some of those involved in partnerships
to talk about their potential policy-level work, since
federal or other funding was seen as precluding
this type of work because of funding restrictions
on lobbying. The media’s tendency to single out
one contributor (often a politician), together with
the potential for over- (or under-) stating the
partnership’s role or give credit to a policymaker
ally, further compounded the diffi culty of analyzing
contribution. Despite these diffi culties, our multi-
method investigation allowed us to conclude
with some confi dence that efforts highlighted
by the 10 CBPR case studies did indeed play a
substantial role in helping to promote healthy
public policy or other systems-level change.
Table 2 summarizes these varied policy and related
outcomes to which the 10 partnerships contributed.

Contributions of CBPR Partnerships to
Promoting Healthy Public Policy:
What Can (and Can’t) We Conclude?

48
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West Harlem Environmental Action
(WE ACT)/Columbia Center for
Children’s Environmental Health

Conversion of New York City bus fl eet to clean diesel•
Establishment by the Environmental Protection •
Agency (EPA) of permanent air monitoring in Harlem
and other “hot spots” locally and nationally
Co-authoring and adoption of a statewide •
environmental justice policy
Concerned Citizens of Tillery/University of
North Carolina School of Public Health
Creation of the North Carolina Environmental Justice •
Network (NCEJN), which in turn helped re-invigorate
a statewide environmental justice movement
Through the NCEJN and drawing on study •
fi ndings, passage and signing of a law in 2007
banning new hog facilities in the state and
setting higher standards for waste treatment
Progress Center for Independent Living/Access
Living/Departments of Disability Studies and
Rehabilitation, University of Illinois, Chicago

Passage of legislation and funding for a •
Senior Community Reintegration Program

State reauthorization of a council to reassess the •
implementation of the Olmstead Act and to prepare
a strategic plan for long-term care fi nancing

“Money follows the person” program provision •
funded in 2007 through a $55.7 million Phase
I grant from the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid to the State of Illinois (CMS, 2007)

The Southern California Environmental
Justice Collaborative (South Los Angeles)
Revision of a regulation (Rule 1402) that tightened •
emission standards and lowered acceptable cancer
risk levels from existing facilities by 75 percent

Changing of policy language used by the California •
Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA)
from individual to cumulative risk exposure

Spearheading an organized environmental •
justice movement in Southern California
Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ)/San
Francisco Department of Public Health
Adoption by several city agencies of a voluntary •
policy creating the Good Neighbor Program to
provide incentives for corner stores that increase
access to healthy foods and decrease shelf
space for alcohol and tobacco products (four
stores had become “good neighbors” by 2007,
with fi ve more slated to do so in 2008–09)
Passage and signing of AB 2384 in 2006, modeled •
on the Good Neighbor Program (albeit without
funding appropriation), to establish a statewide
Healthy Food Purchase pilot program to improve the
supply of healthy choices in small corner stores
Tribal Efforts against Lead (TEAL)/Partnership among
eight local tribes with the University of Oklahoma,
Emory University, and the University of New Mexico

Full implementation of blood lead screening •
and parental notifi cation for young children
by the Ottawa County Health Department
and the Indian Health Service

Halting the use of mine tailings in construction •
and on roads without proper containment

Table 2. Sample Policy and Related Outcomes in which the
Partnerships Appear to Have Played a Substantial Role*

PolicyLink

The Community Coalition /Imoyase Research
Group/Loyola Marymount University

Reopening by the Los Angeles Unifi ed School •
District (LAUSD) of repair and construction
contracts granted by a $2.4 billion school bond
(Proposition BB), resulting in redirection of $100
million in school bond monies from wealthier
schools to those in South Los Angeles

Allocation of $153 million in new funds •
for additional schools in South Los Angeles
and other inner-city communities.

Successful lawsuit resulting in $750 •
million for new school construction

Indiana University School of Nursing/Healthy
Communities of Henry County (HCHC)

Passage and implementation of a bill •
restricting indoor smoking in public places

Securing local government funding and support •
for a large new playground on public land that
was then built by community members
Securing government funding and approvals for an •
initiative to develop a network of trails throughout the
county, promoting physical activity and cleaner air
Youth Link/University of New Mexico/New
Mexico Department of Health (DOH)

Passage by state legislature of a study bill •
(called a memorial) requesting the investigation
of suspension and expulsion policies and
their effects on high-school dropout rates

City support and funding for a skate •
park in Las Cruces, New Mexico

Passage of a citywide smoke-free ordinance •
in Albuquerque and restrictions on tobacco
product placement in Santa Fe, and ultimately
passage of a statewide ban on smoking in
indoor workplaces and public spaces

Harlem Community and Academic Partnership/
The Center for Urban Epidemiological Studies,
Community Reintegration Network

Passage of a bill before the New York State •
Legislature that reinstated Medicaid benefi ts to
inmates upon their release, replacing a policy
that terminated benefi ts upon incarceration

Passage by the New York City Council of •
Local Law 54 mandating the Department of
Correction to provide expanded discharge
planning services to people leaving jail

Department of Correction decision to •
begin releasing many more inmates during
daylight hours than after midnight

__________
*Please note that none of these victories was
attributed solely to the partnerships.

50
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Success Factors across Sites

Many factors contributing to the success of the 10
case studies we examined were context specifi c and
unique to the particular projects and partnerships
examined. At the same time, several factors
emerged in our cross-site analysis as facilitators of
effective functioning and outcomes. These include:

The presence of a strong, autonomous •
community partner organization prior to
the development of the partnership

A high level of mutual respect and trust •
among the partners, and an appreciation
of the complementary skills and resources
that each partner brought to the table

Appreciation by all partners of the need •
for solid scientifi c data as a prerequisite
for making the case for policy action
Commitment to “doing your homework”—•
fi nding out what other communities
have done, who holds decision-making
authority, key leverage points, etc.

Facility for and commitment to building •
strong collaborations and alliances with
numerous and diverse stakeholders
beyond the formal partnership

Knowledge of and facility for attending to a •
variety of “steps” in the policy process, whether
or not the language of policy was spoken

The last point in particular is worthy of note.
Although many partnerships acknowledged
that they needed to learn much more about the
policymaking process, each also appeared to have
a sense of the kinds of policy steps necessary, from
reframing issues and policy goals to identifying
policy targets, fi nding and using windows of
opportunity, and effectively using the mass media to
help carry their message and pressure for change.

Challenges Faced across Sites

Each partnership also faced unique challenges,
grounded in the historical, political, economic,
interpersonal, and other realities surrounding
their research, organizing, and policy work. These
challenges ranged from the strong opposition
of powerful corporate interests (e.g., the hog
industry in North Carolina and the nursing home
lobby in Chicago) to problems posed by high staff
turnover (Youth Link) and severe funding cutbacks
mid-project (Harlem Community and Academic
Partnership and Youth Link). In addition, several
challenges were nearly universal, mentioned by
all or most partnerships as having impeded their
efforts to promote policy or systems change:

Differences in the research timetable of the •
community and academic partners, with the
former often anxious for a quicker execution
of the data analysis and release of fi ndings
in the interests of using them to promote
change. The tightrope walk involved in
balancing what has been called “the necessary
skepticism of science” with the “action
imperative of communities” often came to
mind in relation to this aspect of the work.

Different perspectives on policy work held by •
academic/health department and community
partners, with the latter often more clear
from the outset about the need for and
nature of policy goals and objectives

Funding constraints and/or termination of •
funding or changes in sources of project
support that in turn delayed or changed the
nature of what could be studied and achieved

Perceptions among partnership •
members that they lacked suffi cient
understanding of policymaking processes
and avenues for systems change

Diffi culty talking in terms of policy goals •
and activities because of real or perceived
funding prohibitions and constraints

Diffi culty measuring the longer-term •
impacts of project or policy change: who
follows up when the money runs out?
Success Factors and Challenges Faced Across Sites

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51

The partnerships in this study were selected
in part because of their perceived effects
on health-promoting public policy. Based
on their experiences and shared concerns,
the following recommendations are offered
to other CBPR partnerships interested in
including a policy component in their work or
increasing their effectiveness in advocacy.

Build leadership and a strong base of 1.
support by being genuinely community
driven: Start where the people are by
having the community partner and
its base determine the “hot-button”
issue that needs to be studied—an
issue they are committed to helping
to research and to mobilize around.

By inviting each partner to contribute ideas for
potential studies with policy relevance, but giving
its community partner veto power and the ultimate
say on issues chosen, the Southern California
Environmental Justice Collaborative well illustrated
this principle. And so did New Mexico’s statewide
Youth Link organization, whose Community Action
Teams used focus groups and surveys among
youth to determine a range of desired place-
based changes requiring either municipal action
or statewide change (e.g., enacting a study bill to
explore student suspension and expulsion policies
and their impacts on high-school dropout rates).
Although adult mentors and academic partners at
the University of New Mexico played a key role as
coaches and facilitators, it was the youth-driven
nature of project decision making and issue selection
that resulted in high level youth engagement
in the organization’s policy-focused work.

Where possible, use a variety of 2.
research methods: Both people’s
stories (captured in qualitative data)
and the facts and statistics that
emerge from more quantitative
approaches are needed for moving
policymakers and effectively using the

media. Different forms of data may
help to reach different audiences.

The Concerned Citizens of Tillery partnership
in North Carolina used door-to-door surveys,
ethnographic methods, water sampling and
bacterial counts, and spatial analysis to demonstrate
both the disproportionate prevalence of intensive
livestock operations in poorer, largely African
American communities and the negative health and
quality-of-life outcomes for residents. The diverse
audiences to which the partnership reached out,
from county commissioners to the U. S. Department
of Agriculture, and from local to national media,
responded to different types of data, as well
as to the combination of personal stories and
“hard science” backing their claims and helping
to effectively tailor the messages presented.

Produce high-quality research that can 3.
stand up to careful scrutiny, but make
results easily accessible and highlight
their policy relevance: Policy briefs,
short reports with pie charts and other
graphics, and talking points, as well as
“quotable quotes” from focus groups or
interviews should all be made widely
available to relevant audiences.

The high-quality air monitoring data collected
by WE ACT youth trained and supervised by
epidemiologists at Columbia University produced
results that merited publication in rigorous scientifi c
journals. But their research also won the respect
of policymakers and EPA offi cials, who in turn paid
attention to the partnership’s calls for permanent
air monitoring in Harlem and other “hot spots”
as well as other changes. At the same time, WE
ACT’s education and advocacy campaign, which
featured easy-to-understand articles in the Uptown
Eye newspaper, 75 bus shelter ads, and the
sending of 10,000 postcards to the governor and
the head of the Metropolitan Transit Authority,
effectively told the story of residents choking on
polluted air and WE ACT’s policy change goals.

Recommendations

PolicyLink

Use approaches and processes that 4.
refl ect the local community culture
and ways of doing things (even
if it slows down the process).

The Tribal Efforts against Lead (TEAL) project in
rural Oklahoma required that substantial time be
spent up front to address the profound cultural
differences between academic and community
partners and to overcome the historical distrust of
research that often is present in Indian Country.
Making this time and showing respect for tribal
culture and structure (e.g., by hiring indigenous
Clan Mothers and Clan Fathers who visited
Tribal Governments and urged them to pass
resolutions supporting mandatory screening for
lead) not only increased the local relevance of
the work, but also resulted in tribal support. In
turn, this support was critical in persuading the
Indian Health Service to fully implement lead
screening and reporting for young children.

Remember that “research” includes 5.
not only the partnership’s original
study of the problem but also
subsequent investigation of the policy
considerations involved: Community
partners should be helped to research
whether policy-level work is the best
route for achieving the change they
seek; who has the power to make the
change(s) being sought; and what
sorts of policy-relevant data need to
be collected, from whom, and how
(this is all part of “data collection”).

West Harlem Environmental Action’s staff indicate
that they will literally map out the playing fi eld,
highlighting who has decision-making power, what
policies they’ve supported, and what the impact of
their prior policies have been on their neighborhood,
their organization, and their allies. CBPR partners in
Chicago studied what disability rights activists had
done in other states to help bring about the kinds
of systems-level changes they sought regarding
community integration of people in nursing homes.

Make sure all partners, including 6.
academics, understand that advocacy
is different from “lobbying”: Gain
an understanding of the advocacy
activities allowed of nonprofi t
organizations, including universities
and community partner organizations.
And don’t be surprised if this is
more than you might expect.

When the opportunity opened for renegotiating a
weak regional air quality rule governing allowable
cancer risk, Communities for a Better Environment
and its academic partners used their research
fi ndings to galvanize a regional coalition that could
fi ght to change the regulation. Members of the
partnership did door-to-door outreach, conducted
Toxic Tours for policymakers, presented at hearings,
and published a strategically timed op-ed piece
in the Los Angeles Times. Could their activities
be considered “lobbying?” To the extent that
they were educating community members and
policymakers about their research and potential
ways to mitigate cancer risk, perhaps. But all
of these activities were within the appropriate
boundaries of nonprofi t and academic institutions.

Decide on a policy goal and identify 7.
the relevant policy targets and change
strategies, but always have at least one
“Plan B,” and be open to compromise.

The Literacy for Environmental Justice partnership
in San Francisco’s Bayview District at fi rst explored
crafting a city ordinance to promote their “Good
Neighbor” concept, and then the idea of getting
legislation that would make their neighborhood a
“restricted use district” for incoming merchants.
When neither option was deemed viable, however,
the partnership turned to a third alternative—a
voluntary policy targeted at local stores and
involving working with merchants to improve
food security. The Good Neighbor Program
born of this third option had both legs and
wings, taking off to become a model program
involving several city departments and a growing
number of local stores with promising results.

PolicyLink

Build strong linkages with 8.
organizational allies and other
stakeholders, and be strategic in your
choice of partners. But remember
that in policy work, as in community
organizing, there are “no permanent
enemies, no permanent allies.”
That means looking for allies in
sectors to achieve your goals.

The WE ACT partnership well embodied this
recommendation: members alternated between
pressuring the Environmental Protection Agency to
make changes and partnering with the agency as
a strategic ally to achieve cleaner air in Northern
Manhattan and other hot spots. In another
example, the Harlem Community and Academic
Partnership was surprised to fi nd that a global
corporation, Citibank, was pressuring offi cials
for one of the changes it sought—namely, the
release of prisoners during daylight hours rather
than at 3:00 a.m.—albeit for entirely different
motivations: The banking giant wanted the area
where the prisoners were released to be safer and
primed for redevelopment. Strange bedfellows
can sometimes help leverage the pressure needed
to help push for a mutually desired change.

Through training, Web-based tools, 9.
and other resources (see Appendix
D), increase partners’ understanding
of the policymaking process and,
as appropriate, of legal processes
and issues. If possible, link early
on with a “policy mentor” willing
and able to help partners, including
academic partners, understand and
better navigate the policy process.

The partnership between two Centers for
Independent Living (CILs) in Chicago and their
academic partners at the University of Illinois
clearly benefi ted from its broad network of existing
disability rights activists, who then partnered with
project “newcomers” in Social Action Groups
and town hall meetings. In part through the

effective involvement of more seasoned activists,
the program helped nurture a new generation
of disability rights mentors and advocates from
among a highly marginalized population: disabled
people in and transitioning out of nursing homes
(see appendix D for a short list of relevant policy
tools available on the Web, including former
Harlem URC member Cassandra Ritas’ booklet,
Speaking Truth, Creating Power, written specifi cally
for policy-focused CBPR partnerships).

Offer solutions to policymakers and 10.
decision makers, not just complaints:
Have relevant research to show
them why your solution is on target,
practical, and affordable; include in
your research information on the
“wallet angle” to show the cost
effectiveness of your proposed
solution; and provide community
support to advocate for change.

The Harlem Community and Academic Partnership’s
request for a study by the New York City’s
Independent Budget Offi ce documenting the
annual cost for one incarceration revealed this
fi gure to be $92,500 in 2002—and made the
New York Times. With additional data from a
partnership member on the cost savings of one
of the alternatives to incarceration programs the
PWG supported, this information helped make
a strong case for a new policy allocating funds
for, and expanding, such alternative programs.

Plan for sustainability by seeking 11.
new funding streams, including those
that actively support and encourage
community-partnered research
and action at the policy level.

Several of the partnerships reported new funding
streams from foundations and other sources that
actively supported policy-focused research and
action and, in the process, provided freedom to
pursue work that would link place-based efforts
with local or regional policy advocacy. For both the

54
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LEJ partnership in the Bayview and the Southern
California EJ Collaborative in Los Angeles, generous
new funding from The California Endowment
allowed them to pursue their goals. Fundraising
for even a small pot of unrestricted funds can
be helpful, as can negotiating with funders for a
broad interpretation of issue areas they support.

Enlist the university or the health 12.
department partner’s media relations
offi ce to help write and widely
disseminate press releases. But make
sure community partners participate
in decisions about content and timely
use of such media and that any media
advocacy is a well-thought-out part
of a bigger plan and campaign.

In Tillery, North Carolina, partners utilized UNC’s
News Service, and a press release highlighting
study fi ndings was developed and disseminated in
conjunction with a presentation of the fi ndings at
a national academic meeting. After the story was
carried by several mass media outlets, partnership
members presented the fi ndings before the
General Assembly’s agriculture committee. Results
of the health survey were reported to the state
health department, which issued its own press
statements. The large amount of local media
coverage that followed, together with earlier
exposure of the issue by the community partner on
the TV news program, 60 Minutes, helped bring
broader attention to the issue. But a cardinal rule
of effective policy-focused work is to engage the
media strategically for the purposes of policy change
(e.g., highlighting a policy solution) and not simply
for broad “awareness” of the problem—a critical
distinction. Community partners may be particularly
helpful in getting media to cover not only the
problem, but also community and partnership
perspectives on what can be done about it.

Recognize that policy change takes 13.
a long time, and commit to staying
involved over the long haul: Getting
to policy change (and ensuring
that a new measure or policy is in

fact implemented) is likely to mean
developing and implementing
several strategies and working well
beyond any funded grant period.

When federal budget cuts resulted in the
termination of funding for the Harlem URC’s
Policy Work Group, the partnership faced major
challenges, particularly because the cuts came
before the project had achieved several policy goals
and activities. Because of their deep commitment
to the cause, however, members continued to
meet with individuals and partner institutions and
to donate time, meeting space, and supplies to
pursue their objectives. Most of the impressive
policy changes achieved by this group took place
after funding ended. The Policy Work Group
continues to meet and to study and advocate for
new policies and practices that can ease community
reentry among recently released inmates.

These recommendations are directed to
CBPR partnerships themselves and were
culled from the combined wisdom of the
partnership members and policymakers
interviewed for this project. Beyond these
recommendations, however, increasing the
ability of such partnerships to help promote
policy-level changes will require increased
institutional support in the form of federal
and foundation funding. Such funding should
specifi cally target CBPR partnerships focused
on promoting healthy public policy and
systems change to improve the public’s health.
Interested funders should also communicate
to their grantees, and particularly those
doing CBPR, both the value of working on
the policy- and systems-change levels and the
parameters around doing so where federal
and foundation funding is concerned.

PolicyLink
55
Introduction

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W. K. Kellogg Community Health Scholars 5.
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Ritas, C. Speaking Truth, Creating Power: A 6.
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activity in an intervention to prevent lead
poisoning among Native American children.
Health Promotion Practice 4(2):189–96.

Gerberding, J. 2004. 6. Report to Congress:
Tar Creek Superfund Site; Ottawa County,
Oklahoma. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and Agency for Toxic Substances
and Disease Registry, October. http://www.
atsdr.cdc.gov/sites/tarcreek/index.html.

Petersen, D., M. Minkler, V. Breckwich Vásquez, 7.
M. C. Kegler, L. H. Malcoe, and S. Whitecrow.
2007. Using community-based participatory
research to shape policy and prevent lead

exposure among Native children. Progress in
Community Health Partnerships 1:249–56.

Improving school conditions by changing
public policy in South Los Angeles

Los Angeles Unifi ed School District. 1. Fingertip
Facts 2007–2008. http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us.

Lopez-Garza, M. 2001. 2. State of South Los
Angeles 1990–2010: A Community Coalition
Perspective. Los Angeles: Community Coalition.

The Community Coalition. 3. http://
www.cocosouthla.org/.

Saurwein, K., and K. A. Haynes. 1999. 4.
Schools have no trouble identifying the LA
school district’s most pressing problems.
Los Angeles Times, October 15, p. 2.

Wang C. C., and M. Burris. 1997. Photovoice: 5.
Concept, methodology, and use for
participatory needs assessment. Health
Education and Behavior 24:369–87.

Foege, A., and V. Sheff-Cahan. 1999. Picture 6.
imperfect. People Magazine, November 29.

Stewart, G. 2002. Business has learned 7.
to let the community lead. Los Angeles
Business Journal, April 4–8.

Meara, E. R., S. Richards, and D. M. Cutler. 8.
2008. The gap gets bigger: Changes in
mortality and life expectancy, by education,
1981–2000. Health Affairs 27(2): 350–60.

Making the healthy choice the easy choice

Rains, J.W., and D. W. Ray. 1995. Participatory 1.
action research for community health
promotion. Public Health Nursing 12:256–61.

Minkler, M., V. Breckwich Vásquez, J. 2.
Warner, H. Steussey, and S. Facente. 2006.
Sowing the seeds of sustainable change: A
community-university research and action
partnership in Indiana and its aftermath. Health
Promotion International 21(4):293–300.

Healthy Communities of Henry 3.
County. http://hchcin.org/.

PolicyLink

Empowering New Mexico’s young people
in public policymaking: Youth Link

U. S. Factfi nder. 2006. 1. 2006 American
Community Survey: New Mexico. http://
factfi nder.census.gov/servlet/ACSSAFFFacts?_
submenuId=factsheet_1&_sse=on.

National Association of Counties Rural Action 2.
Caucus, County Data. 2005. http://www.naco.
org/RuralTemplate.cfm?Section=RAC_County_
Data&Template=/cffi les/rac/state_srch.cfm.

New Mexico Human Services Department. 3.
2006. New Mexico’s Uninsured Rate Moving
in the Right Direction Despite Rapidly Rising
Healthcare Costs. http://www.hsd.state.
nm.us/pdf/2005UninsuredRateNR .

http://nmvoices.org/youthlink.htm.4.

Wallerstein, N. 2002. Empowerment to 5.
reduce health disparities. Scandinavian
Journal of Public Health 30:72–77.

Springett, J., and N. Wallerstein. 2008. Issues in 6.
Participatory Evaluation. In Community-Based
Participatory Research for Health: From Process
to Outcomes, 2nd Edition, eds. M. Minkler and
N. Wallerstein. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Blackwell, A. G., M. Minkler, and M. Thompson. 7.
2005. Using Community Organizing and
Community Building to Infl uence Policy. In

Community Organizing and Community
Building for Health, 2nd Edition, ed. M. Minkler.
New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Reintegrating drug users leaving jail and prison

Freudenberg, N., M. A. Rogers, C. Ritas, 1.
and M. Nerney. 2005. Policy analysis and
advocacy: An approach to community-
based participatory research. In Methods in
Community-Based Participatory Research for
Health, eds. B. A. Israel, E. Eng, A. J. Schulz,
and E. A. Parker. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

van Olphen, J., N. Freudenberg, S. Galea, A.-2.
G. Palermo, and C. Ritas. 2003. Advocating
Policies to Promote Community Reintegration
of Drug Users Leaving Jail: A Case Study
of First Steps in a Policy Change Campaign
Guided by Community-Based Participatory
Research. In Community-Based Participatory
Research for Health, eds. M. Minkler and N.
Wallerstein. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Freudenberg, F. 2008. Changing municipal 3.
policies to promote health and reduce
disparities: What’s the role of community-based
participatory research? Presentation to the
Kellogg Health Scholars Program Networking
Meeting, May 20, in Washington, DC.

60
PolicyLink

Project Staff

Meredith Minkler, DrPH, MPH (PI)
Professor, Health and Social Behavior
School of Public Health,
50 University Hall #7360
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-7360
Phone: 510.642.4397
Fax: 510.643.8236
mink@uclink.berkeley.edu

Victoria Breckwich Vásquez, DrPH, MPH
Chief, Community Health Action and Assessment Section
City of Berkeley Public Health Division
1947 Center Street, #2
Berkeley, CA 94704
Phone: 510.981.5362
Fax: 510.981.5345
VBreckwich-Vasquez@ci.berkeley.ca.us

Angela Glover Blackwell (Consultant)
Founder and CEO, PolicyLink
1438 Webster Street, Suite 303
Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: 510.663.2333
Fax: 510.663.9684
ablackwell@policylink.org

Judith Bell (Consultant)
President, PolicyLink
1438 Webster Street, Suite 303
Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: 510.663.2333
Fax: 510.663.9684
info@policylink.org

Mildred Thompson, MSW (Consultant)
Senior Director and Director,
PolicyLink Center for Health and Place
1438 Webster Street, Suite 303
Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: 510.663.2333
Fax: 510.663.9684
info@policylink.org

Victor Rubin, PhD (Consultant)
Vice President for Research, PolicyLink
1438 Webster Street, Suite 303
Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: 510.663.2333
Fax: 510.663.9684
info@policylink.org

Additional Project Staff

Mansoureh Tajik, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Community Health and Sustainability
School of Health & Environment
University of Massachusetts at Lowell
3 Solomont Way, Suite 3
Lowell, MA 01854-5121
Phone: 978.934.4482
Mansoureh_tajik@uml.edu

Dana Petersen, PhD, MPH
Research Social Scientist
Policy Division, SRI International
333 Ravenswood Avenue, BS113
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Phone: 650.859.4518
Fax: 650.859.5258
dana.petersen@sri.com

Appendix A: Project Staff and National Advisory
Board Members

PolicyLink
61

Shelley Facente, MPH
Coordinator for HIV CTL Evaluation
and Quality Assurance
HIV Prevention Section, AIDS Offi ce
San Francisco Department of Public Health
25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 500
San Francisco, CA 94102
Phone: 415.554.9136
Fax: 415.934.48

Shelley.Facente@sfdph.org

Andrea Corage Baden, PhD (cand)
UCSF Department of Social Behavioral Sciences
3333 California Street #455
San Francisco, CA 94118
Phone: 206.329.1737
corage@umich.edu

Advisory Board Members

Makani Themba-Nixon
Executive Director
The Praxis Project
1750 Columbia Road, NW
Second Floor
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: 202.234.5921
Fax: 202.234.2689
mthemba@thepraxisproject.org

Lorenda Belone, MPH, PhD (cand)
Program Manager/Research Scientist, MPH Program
University of New Mexico
2400 Tucker, NE, Room 145
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
Phone: 505.272.3634
Fax: 505.272.4494
ljoe@salud.unm.edu

Pamela Tau Lee
Coordinator of Public Programs
School of Public Health
Labor Occupational Health Program
University of California – Berkeley
2223 Fulton Street, 4th Floor
Berkeley, CA 94720-5120
Phone: 510.643.7594
Fax: 510.643.5698
ptlee@berkeley.edu

Gary Tang
Adult and Aging Services Director
Asian Counseling and Referral Services
720 8th Avenue S., #200
Seattle, WA 98104
Phone: 206.695.7526
Fax: 206.695.7606
garyt@acrs.org

Lucille Webb
President
Strengthening Black Family, Inc.
1509 Tierney Circle
Raleigh, NC 27601
Phone: 919.834.8862
Fax: 919.856.6575
webb@handtechisp.com

Alex J. Allen, III
Vice President
Community Planning & Research
Isles, Inc.
10 Wood Street
Trenton, NJ 08618
Phone: 609.341.4701
Fax: 609.393.9513
aallen@isles.org

Cassandra Ritas, MPP, BA
Consultant
8510 34th Avenue, #621
Jackson Heights, NY 11372
Phone: 212.744.7664
critas@gmail.com

62
PolicyLink

Site Selection Process

To be included in this study, partnerships had to
meet strict criteria of CBPR (Israel et al., 1998)
and to have either showed evidence of having
contributed to a policy change or showed
promise for doing so in the near future. An initial
group of 12 potential projects was identifi ed
in conjunction with a major concurrent study
by the Research Triangle Institute/University of
North Carolina’s Center for Evidence Based Public
Health, which was examining the evidence base
for CBPR in English-speaking North America.

Additional literature reviews and calls to
approximately two dozen relevant Internet listservs,
such as Campus Community Partnerships for Health
(CCPH), the Community Health Scholars Program,
and relevant American Public Health Association
(APHA) caucuses, increased the total number of
potential cases to 77. Projects were summarized
along dimensions including health policy area of
interest, population and geographic area involved,
and type of research methods employed.

To assist in selecting the fi nal case studies for this
analysis, as well as to provide input on subsequent
stages in the research, an eight-member national
community advisory board (CAB) was formed.
Members of the CAB had all been engaged in
CBPR typically as community partners, and in two
cases as bridging persons or liaisons between
academic and community partners. CAB members
were drawn from diverse parts of the country and
brought diversity as well in terms of their race/
ethnicity, age, gender, and social class. Diversity
was also evident in the health-related areas with
which their CBPR partnerships had been engaged.

PolicyLink staff worked with the CAB and the
University of California-Berkeley researchers in
the selection process. The Principal Investigator
(PI) and Project Director prescreened all 77 of the
cases under review, removing those that were
conducted outside the United States; had little
policy involvement to date; focused solely on
private sector policy; or had not resulted in peer
review publications and/or abstracts, unless there

was other major written evidence of activities and
accomplishments (e.g., reports to the National
Institutes of Health). In many cases, the partnership’s
PI was contacted to gain further information before
deciding whether to keep their projects in the pool.

A fi nal group of 27 potential case studies was
summarized on an Excel spread sheet (which
subsequently formed the basis for an extensive
FileMaker contact database) and presented
to the CAB for review. The advisory board in
turn fi ne-tuned selection criteria to include
the following: (1) the need for projects that
represented diversity of health problem areas
being addressed; (2) racial/ethnic, urban, rural,
and geographic diversity; and (3) a range in types
of research conducted by the partnerships.

The CAB, consultant, and research team narrowed
the fi nal list to 14. One of these had ceased its work
after achieving its policy goals and chose not to be
included, while another was too busy to participate;
a third never responded despite repeated outreach
attempts. A fi nal project under consideration proved
not to meet the CAB’s criteria of action in the
public policy arena. The remaining 11 sites were
enthusiastic about participating, with one serving
as a pretest site for the study, and the rest included
in in-depth case study and cross-site analyses.

Data Collection

After receiving approval from the UC Berkeley
Institutional Review Board and after substantial
revision based on pretests, key source interview
guides and focus group guides were fi nalized
for use at the selected sites. Three of the 10
partnership sites involved signifi cant youth
participation, and separate source interview and
focus group guides were created to highlight
and measure key outcomes related to youth.

To help defray the costs of their participation, $250
was offered to each participating community-based
agency, as well as an honorarium of $50 (cash or
gift certifi cate) to each individual who participated
in an individual or a focus group interview. Site

Appendix B: Study Methods and Analysis

PolicyLink
63

visits, typically two to three days in length and
attended by one to two team members, were
completed at all 10 sites and involved the following:

Confi dential key source interviews, lasting •
90 minutes on average, were conducted
with 60 community and academic and/or
health department partners and were taped
with their permission and transcribed.

Twelve focus groups, lasting one hour on •
average, were conducted with community
residents and also were taped and transcribed.

Twelve phone interviews were •
conducted with policymakers/decision
makers or external stakeholders, which
lasted 45 minutes on average.

Relevant newsletters, reports, or other •
documents were collected for review, with
subsequent Internet searches, etc., used to
track additional published information.

Where applicable and feasible, at least one •
tour of the area in which the project took place
was conducted by visiting team members.

At some sites, participants were observed at •
special events, such as town hall meetings,
board meetings, and local conferences
sponsored by the partnership project.

Data Analysis

The PI, Project Director, and a graduate student
assistant independently reviewed each of the
transcripts and coded key domains using a
numerical coding schema developed for the

project. Team members then met to reconcile their
fi ndings and agree on distinctions between and
among domains. Transcripts and numerical codes
were entered into the qualitative data analysis
program, Atlas.ti, to generate both inter-rater
reliability scores and summaries of all of the relevant
transcript data on given themes and research
questions under investigation. The data analysis
program was then used to develop a computerized
grouping of all responses by domain and by site,
and these key domain reports were reviewed
independently by research team members. Key
themes for each domain and for each site emerged.

Preliminary themes present across all sites were then
analyzed and shared with the project consultant and
CAB. These were subsequently developed into a
comprehensive list. Analysis also produced ranked-
order listings of success factors and lessons learned
in each partnership, ranked by how often they were
mentioned across all partners we interviewed.

Although this was a study of CBPR projects
rather than a participatory research project itself,
we were committed to honoring participatory
research principles and invited partnerships
to review and correct any inaccuracies in the
project summaries we developed in relation
to their sites. We also invited partnership
members to serve as co-authors on relevant
publications and/or to participate in subsequent
presentations about the work (see Appendix C).

64
PolicyLink

Breckwich Vásquez, V., D. Lanza, S. Hennessey Lavery, S. Facente, H. Halpin, and M.
Minkler. 2007. Addressing food security through public policy action in a community-
based participatory research partnership. Health Promotion Practice 8(4):342–9.

Breckwich Vásquez, V., M. Minkler, and P. Shepard. 2006. Promoting environmental
health policy through community-based participatory research: A case study
from Harlem, New York. Journal of Urban Health 83(1):101–10.

Minkler, M., V. Breckwich Vásquez, M. Tajik, and D. Petersen. 2008. Promoting
environmental justice through community-based participatory research: The role of
community and partnership capacity. Health Education and Behavior 35(1):119–37.

Minkler, M., V. Breckwich Vásquez, J. Warner, H. Steussey, and S. Facente. 2006. Sowing
the seeds for sustainable change: A community-university research and action partnership
in Indiana and its aftermath. Health Promotion International 21(4):293–300.

Minkler, M., J. Hammel, C. Gill, S. Magasi, V. Breckwich Vásquez, M. Bristo, and D.
Coleman. 2008. Community-based participatory research in disability and long-term
care policy: A case study. Journal of Disability Policy Studies 19 (2): 114–26.

Petersen, D., M. Minkler, V. Breckwich Vásquez, and A. C. Baden. 2006. Community-based
participatory research as a tool for policy change: A case study of the Southern California
Environmental Justice Collaborative. Review of Policy Research 23(2):339–53.

Petersen, D., M. Minkler, V. Breckwich Vásquez, M. C. Kegler, L. H. Malcoe, and S. Whitecrow.
2007. Using community-based participatory research to shape policy and prevent lead
exposure among Native children. Progress in Community Health Partnerships 1:249–56.

Tajik, M. and M. Minkler. 2006–07. Environmental justice research and action:
A case study in political economy and community-academic collaboration.
International Quarterly of Community Health Education 26(3):213–31.

Appendix C: List of Project Publications

PolicyLink
65

Advocating for Change, PolicyLink. http://www.policylink.org/AdvocatingForChange.

Center for Third World Organizing. www.ctwo.org.

The Community Tool Box. http://ctb.ku.edu.

The Environmental Defense Fund’s Environmental Scorecard. www.scorecard.org.

NetAction (including self-guided course on Internet organizing and advocacy). www.netaction.org.

Networking for Policy Change. POLICY, 1999: www.policyproject.com.

Organizer’s Collaborative. www.organizerscollaborative.org.

The Praxis Project. www.thepraxisproject.org.

Speaking Truth, Creating Power: A guide to policy work for community-based
participatory research practitioners. C. Ritas. Community-Campus Partnerships
for Health. http://futurehealth.ucsf.edu/pdf_fi les/Ritas .

Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE). www.scopela.org.

Sites for addressing the digital divide:

Community Technology Centers. www.ctcnet.org.

Digital Divide Network. www.digitaldividenetwork.org.

Tech Soup. www.techsoup.org.

Appendix D: Web and Other Resources

PolicyLink

Table 3. CBPR Partnership Summaries

Partnership Research Aim Research
Methods

Policy Approaches Key Policy
Outcomes*

Community Coalition
Partnership
South Los Angeles, CA

Community Coalition •

The Imoyase Group/ •
Loyola Marymount University

Study conditions of
schools in South LA

Youth survey
(n=900)
Photovoice (n=60
participants)
Focus groups

Media advocacy
Partnering with other
stakeholders
Community organizing
and mobilization
Lawsuit

Reopening by LAUSD of
repair and construction
contracts granted
by school bond
Redirection of $100 million
to South LA schools
$153 million in new funds
for additional school repairs
in South LA and other
inner-city communities
$750 million for new
school construction via
successful lawsuit

CCT Partnership
Tillery and Southeast
Halifax County, NC

Concerned Citizens •
of Tillery (CCT)

Univ. of North Carolina, •
Chapel Hill

Halifax County Health •
Department (initially)

Quantify industrial
hog operations in
low-income/ mostly
African American
communities and
their health effects

Spatial statistics
GIS mapping
Household water
source study
and survey

Public involvement
in hearings
Organizational alliances
Outreach to legislators

Created NC Environmental
Justice Network, which
re-invigorated statewide
EJ movement
Helped get passage of law
banning new hog facilities in
state and setting standards
for waste treatment (2007)

Harlem Community and
Academic Partnership
East and Central Harlem, NY

New York Academy of •
Medicine – Ctr. for Urban
Epidemiological Studies

Harlem Urban Research •
Center (URC)

Hunter College, City •
University of New York

Study the barriers
faced by reentry
populations and
examine policies that
limit their access to
related services

Focus groups
In-depth interviews
Surveys with
substance users and
service providers
Public opinion
research

Policy advocacy
Community symposium
Survival Guide for
Substance Users
Web-based resource guide
for service providers
Development of parallel
citywide network
for sustainability

Passage of state bill
reinstating Medicaid benefi ts
to inmates upon release
Passage by NYC Council
of law mandating Dept.
of Correction to provide
expanded discharge planning
services to people leaving jail
Dept. of Correction move to
release many more inmates
during daylight hours

HCHC Partnership
New Castle and Henry County, IN

Healthy Communities of •
Henry County (HCHC)

Indiana University •
School of Nursing

Henry County •
Memorial Hospital

Develop a health
profi le of Henry
County to inform
community and
environmental policy
interventions

Census data
analysis
Door-to-door
surveys
Focus groups

Statewide workshop
with sessions on data
interpretation, priority
setting, and policy-
structured changes
15-week leadership
training
Partnerships with
local policymakers

Crafting and passage
of region’s fi rst indoor
smoking ordinance
Securing of local
government support and
funding for playground
Securing inter-sectoral
governmental funding,
including a new food
and beverage tax, for a
“web of trails” initiative

PolicyLink

Partnership Research Aim Research
Methods
Policy Approaches Key Policy
Outcomes*

LEJ Partnership
Southeast San Francisco, CA

Literacy for Environmental •
Justice (LEJ)

San Francisco Dept. •
of Public Health

Independent evaluator•

Study food insecurity
in Bayview Hunters
Point community

Community surveys
Store shelf
diagramming
Merchant
interviews
Economic
incentives study
GIS mapping

Followed Community
Action Model focused
on policy action
Media advocacy
Local outreach campaign
Partnerships with
local policymakers and
food distributors

Enactment of a voluntary
municipal policy (Good
Neighbor Program)
incentivizing corner stores
that increase access
to healthy foods and
decrease advertising of
alcohol and tobacco
Passage of AB 2384 in
2006, modeled on GN
Program, to establish
statewide Healthy Food
Purchase pilot program (w/
out funding appropriation)

Moving out of the
Nursing Home and into
the Community
Chicago, IL

University of Illinois, Chicago •
Occ. Therapy/Disability and
Human Development

Access Living•

Progress Center for •
Independent Living

Examine change in
community living
status, community
participation,
disability identity,
and individual and
collective power
among those
transitioning out
of nursing homes

Focus groups
Controlled
intervention trial
with baseline
and repeated
measures survey
Interviews

Quarterly town
hall meetings
Mobilization of disabled
community Social
Action Groups
Media advocacy
Testifying
Class action lawsuit

Passage of legislation
and funding of a
Senior Community
Reintegration Program
State reauthorization of
a statewide council to
reassess Olmstead Act
implementation and plan
for rebalancing long-
term care fi nancing
Allocation of $55.7 million
from state in 2007 for
new “Money Follows
the Person” program

Southern California
Environmental Justice
Collaborative
South Los Angeles, CA

Communities for a •
Better Environment

Liberty Hill Foundation•

Researchers at UC Santa •
Cruz, Occidental College,
Brown University

Examine
environmental
inequality in air
quality and toxic
exposure levels
in southern CA

Secondary data
analysis using
spatial statistics,
multivariate, GIS
Creation of regional
“health riskscape”

Tripartite approach
of credible research,
community organizing,
and policy advocacy/law

Revision of a regulation
(Rule 1402) tightening
emission standards and
lowering MICR by 75 percent
Changing of policy
language used by Cal/-
EPA from individual to
cumulative risk exposure
Spearheading EJ movement
in southern CA

continues on next page

68
PolicyLink
Partnership Research Aim Research
Methods
Policy Approaches Key Policy
Outcomes*

Tribal Efforts against
Lead (TEAL)
Tar Creek, Northeast Ottawa
County, OK

Clan Mothers and Fathers •
from eight tribes

Univ. of Oklahoma, •
Univ. of New Mexico,
and Emory University

Ottawa County Health •
Department

Assess lead exposure
levels among
local children and
evaluate a lay health
worker model

Childhood
blood lead level
screenings
Lay health worker
intervention
Home environment-
al assessments

Garnering community
support for routine
lead screening
Getting tribal resolutions
for mandatory testing
Working with County
Commission to pass mine
tailings use regulations

Full implementation of
blood lead screening and
parental notifi cation for
young children by Ottawa
County Health Dept. and
Indian Health Service
Policy action to halt use of
mine tailings in construction
and on roads without
proper containment

WE ACT Partnership
Northern Manhattan,
New York City, NY

West Harlem •
Environmental Action

Columbia University •
Center for Children’s
Environmental Health

Study community-
level exposure
to diesel exhaust
emissions and
related air pollution

Traffi c and
pedestrian counts
Personal air
monitoring
GIS mapping

Media advocacy
Testifying and
briefi ng offi cials
Filing legal complaints

Conversion of NYC bus
fl eet to clean diesel
Establishment by
EPA of permanent air
monitoring in Harlem
and other “hot spots”
Co-authoring and
adoption of statewide
environmental justice policy

Youth Link
New Mexico

Youth Link•

University of New Mexico•

New Mexico Department •
of Health (DOH)

Study youth-identifi ed
and geographically
based health issues
and evaluate youth
participation

Youth surveys
Interviews
with youth
Secondary analysis
of KIDS Count Data
and DOH data

Youth policy training
Bill development
Policy advocacy
Media advocacy
Visits to state capitol

State legislature’s passage
of study bill to investigate
suspension policies and
their effects on high-
school dropout rates
City support and funding for
skate park in Las Cruces
citywide smoke-free
ordinance in Albuquerque,
and restriction on
tobacco product
placement in Santa Fe
Passage of statewide ban on
smoking indoor workplaces
and public spaces

* Please note that victories were not attributed entirely to the partnerships; rather, the partnerships
were perceived to have had a signifi cant impact on these policy outcomes.

continued from previous page

PolicyLink
1438 Webster Street
Suite 303
Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: 510 663-2333
FAX: 510 663-9684
Web: www.policylink.org

W.K. Kellogg Foundation
One Michigan Avenue East
Battle Creek, MI 49017-4012
Phone: 269 968-1611
FAX: 269 968-0413
Web: www.wkkf.org

School of Public Health
University of California, Berkeley
50 University Hall #7360
Berkeley, CA 94720-7360
Phone: 510 642-6531
Web: sph.berkeley.edu

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