“We’re Who We’ve Been Waiting For”: Intergenerational Community Organizing for a Healthy Community

Abstract

This study, guided by principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR), presents the processes, challenges, and effects of intergenerational community organizing practice of a local grassroots organization to promote community health in multiracial and historically marginalized communities. Three major lessons emerged: (1) the central role of experiential communal learning and critical analysis in collective knowledge creation, (2) development of collective efficacy through a genuine sense of connection and mutual affirmation, and 3) the importance of a co-learner stance in fostering intergenerational leadership. The interconnection between process and product is emphasized as the central tenet in both community organizing and CBPR processes.

Building an Airplane While Flying It: One Community's Experience with Community Food Transformation

“…This evaluation followed the collaborative approach of the HFFPC: we adopted participatory methods, in which the multiple stakeholders created and analyzed knowledge together (Coombe, 2005;Kang, 2015;Zukoski & Luluquisen, 2002). In participatory evaluation, stakeholders (partners, funders, key decision-makers, community residents) actively engage in developing the evaluation and the phases of its implementation (Zukoski & Luluquisen, 2002).…”

“…We chose the format of face-to-face engagement with a meal catered by a nearby Puerto Rican restaurant, because in-person gatherings are personable, authentic, build relationships, and are the preferred means of communication and dialogue in the Holyoke Latino community. Process, in this instance, is as equally important as outcomes (Kang, 2015;Zukoski & Luluquisen, 2002). Over the years the HFFPC learned that meeting over a healthy, culturally relevant meal, offering childcare, and holding meetings at convenient times for community parents and youth leaders (evenings) make these meetings more possible and attractive for a vibrant mix of people to attend.…”

“…Some solutions seek to "fix" the individual, but until the system is shifted to empower those in need, the opportunity dynamic does not change. It is not enough for public health professionals and partnering agencies from outside of these communities and neighborhoods to provide healthier choices: research suggests that when residents take an active role in improving neighborhood conditions, and in actually changing the systems and policies that preclude opportunities to build health and wellbeing, the result is a more positive impact on health and human potential (Ammons, 2014;Insight Center for Community Economic Development, 2013, Kang, 2015Wolff, 2016). Ammons (2014) discusses the need to construct new food-systems narratives that encompass the struggles and realities of people of color working to change the system and those who are directly impacted by its inequities.…”

“…It is only with clearly articulated and continuously embedded understanding of structural racism and the resulting lack of opportunities for specific racialized groups that collaborative organizing can be successful. When community members are truly a part of all aspects of decision-and change-making within the food system, coalitions and food policy councils can work together across race and class to make positive changes (Ammons, 2014;Arnstein, 1969;Giancatarino & Noor, 2014;Kadushin et al, 2005;Kang, 2015;Lee & Navarro, 2016).…”

Introductory Notes on Engaging with Communities for Justice

“…Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls (1997) continue by noting that collective efficacy denotes shared trust and willingness to collaborate for the common good. As Kang (2015) discusses, perceived and experienced discrimination by people of color and other marginalized groups, especially youth, (including xenophobia, sexism, anti-Semitism, gay and transgender phobia etc.) is correlated with numerous negative consequences.…”