Examining the contributions of a community coalition in addressing urban health determinants

Abstract

Community coalitions facilitate changes in community outcomes and conditions by addressing issues and determinants of health and well-being. The purpose of the present study was to examine the process of a community coalition, the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council (INC), in addressing community-prioritized urban health determinants aimed at improving living conditions in a neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri. Using an empirical case study design, the implementation of the community change framework supported through the Kauffman Neighborhood Initiative is examined. The results suggest that the INC was effective in implementing 117 community changes, and these changes were associated with modest improvements in targeted outcomes related to housing and crime. A 10 year follow-up probe indicates that the majority of recurring community changes were sustained. The results indicate that the comprehensive community initiative was important in facilitating community change that may have contributed to improvements in addressing urban health determinants.

Machalicek et al. (in press) Sustaining Personal Activism: Behavior Analysts as Anti-Racist Accomplices

“…Most of the work in our field examining underlying mechanisms of racism such as prejudice, stigma, biases, and cultural competency emerges from relational frame theory, the practice of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and related practices such as mindfulness (Levin et al, 2016;Lilis & Hazeys 2007), and perspective taking to mediate the automaticity of established reactions (Todd et al, 2011). Also of note is the work that individual behavior analysts are doing to better understand and address large-scale societal issues such as poverty (e.g., Lemos & Todorov, 2020) and crime, substance misuse and access to health care (e.g., Anderson-Carpenter et al, 2017;Watson-Thompson et al, 2018), and calling for collective action from those in our field (e.g., Biglan et al, 2017;Hantula, 2019;Mattaini, 2019). Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) are now more than 30,000 strong in the United States and we have the capacity to influence as individuals, as change agents in our clients' lives, and as members and leaders in the organizations we work within, our professional organizations, and in our own neighborhoods, cities, and states.…”

Progress Toward a Multisectoral Community Intervention Approach to Prevention of the Word Gap

“…The multisector community partnership (Fawcett et al, 2010 ; Roussos & Fawcett, 2000 ) is an evidence-based approach to community development and improved population health. This intervention entails organizing a coalition with a mission to undertake collaborative actions around a highly valued community outcome (Watson-Thompson et al, 2013 , 2018 , 2020 ). The Community Tool Box model, developed and supported by our partner, the Center for Community Health and Development (CCHD) at the University of Kansas, is one widely used model for promoting this approach ( https://ctb.ku.edu/en ).…”

Coalition-Committees as Network Interventions: Baseline Network Composition in Context of Childhood Obesity Prevention Interventions

“…Community coalitions that focus on preventing childhood obesity intervene in the upstream (e.g., choosing evidence-based strategies) and midstream (e.g., implementing policy and practice strategies) to impact downstream or proximal health outcomes [9]. Such coalitions have seen varying degrees of success in implementing substantive and sustainable policy, practice, and environmental (PPE) strategies for community-wide systems change [10][11][12][13]. Coalitions focused on childhood health promotion have effectively shifted informal policies within organizations (e.g., hospitals and schools) and formal policies via local and state legislation, which includes generating support in the government and private sector for sustainable health systems change [14][15][16][17].…”