The just-published March 2012 issue of the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement (JHEOE) is a thematic issue dedicated to:

*Seven articles about Faculty for the Engaged Campus, a national initiative of Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH) in partnership with the University of Minnesota and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

*Three articles resulting from the conference Community-Engaged Scholarship: Critical Junctures in Research, Practice and Policy, held November 4-5, 2010 in Guelph, Ontario Canada.

*Three book reviews on topics related to community-engaged scholarship.

The paper titles are listed below to give you an idea of the range of topics covered in the issue.  The complete table of contents and the full text of every article can be accessed at http://bit.ly/aAZuc1

Section One: Faculty for the Engaged Campus National Initiative

Faculty for the Engaged Campus: Advancing Community-Engaged Careers in the Academy

Building Capacity for Community-Engaged Scholarship: Evaluation of the Faculty Development Component of the Faculty for the Engaged Campus Initiative

CES4Health.info: A Web-Based Mechanism for Dissminating Peer-Reviewed Products of Community-Engaged Scholarship: Reflections on Year One

Section Two: Faculty for the Engaged Campus Funded Sites

Competency-Based Faculty Development in Community-Engaged Scholarship: A Diffusion of Innovation Approach

Engaged Scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Campus Integration and Faculty Development

Reflections on Community-Engaged Scholarship Faculty Development and Institutional Identity

Institutionalization of Community-Engaged Scholarship at Institutions that are both Land-Grant and Research Universities

Section Three: 2010 Community-Engaged Scholarship Conference: Critical Junctures in Research, Practice, and Policy

Community-Engaged Scholarship: Critical Junctures in Research, Practice, and Policy

A Needs Assessment Informs Development of a Participatory Research Faculty Development Workshop

Reflection on 10 Years of Community-Engaged Scholarship in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia-Vancouver

Book Reviews

The Obesity Culture: Strategies for Change— Public Health and University-Community Partnerships

Participatory Partnerships for Social Action and Research

Handbook of Engaged Scholarship: Contemporary Landscapes, Future Directions: Volume 1: Institutional Change, and Volume 2: Community-Campus Partnerships

This community and academic partner co-authored article appears in the current (Nov 2011) issue of the journal Society and Mental Health: http://bit.ly/wBVbz4

An Exploration of the Effect of Community Engagement in Research on Perceived Outcomes of Partnered Mental Health Services Projects

Dmitry Khodyakov, Susan Stockdale, Felica Jones, Elizabeth Ohito, Andrea Jones, Elizabeth Lizaola and Joseph Mango

Abstract

Mental health research projects address sensitive issues for vulnerable populations and are implemented in complex environments. Community-based participatory research approaches are recommended for health research on vulnerable populations, but little is known about how variation in participation affects outcomes of partnered research projects. We developed a conceptual model demonstrating the impact of community engagement in research on outcomes of partnered projects. We collected data on key constructs from community and academic leaders of 21 sampled partnered research projects in two cycles of a research center funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. We conducted empirical analyses to test the model. Our findings suggest that community engagement in research is positively associated with perceived professional development as well as political and community impact.

New American Journal of Public Health “First Look” articles have been made available (for the period 28 Oct 2011 to 17 Nov 2011)

Ethical Justification for Conducting Public Health Surveillance Without
Patient Consent
Lisa M Lee, Charles M Heilig, and Angela White
Am J Public Health published 17 November 2011, 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300297
http://bit.ly/vyRJOR

Using Art to Amplify Youth Voices on Housing Insecurity
Carolyn Cannuscio, Eva Bugos, Shari Hersh, David A. Asch, and Eve E. Weiss
Am J Public Health published 17 November 2011, 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300494
http://bit.ly/uHbgNW

Consequences of Industry Relationships for Public Health and Medicine
David J. Rothman
Am J Public Health published 17 November 2011, 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300507
http://bit.ly/v2VSIy

The Future of Public Health Ethics
Mark A. Rothstein
Am J Public Health published 17 November 2011, 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300365
http://bit.ly/rAoygB

Operationalization of Community-Based Participatory Research Principles:
Assessment of the National Cancer Institute’s Community Network Programs
Kathryn L Braun, Tung T. Nguyen, Sora Park Tanjasiri, Janis Campbell, Sue P
Heiney, Heather M. Brandt, Selina A. Smith, Daniel S. Blumenthal, Margaret
Hargreaves, Kathryn Coe, Grace X. Ma, Donna Kenerson, Kushal Patel, JoAnn
Tsark, and James R. Hebert
Am J Public Health published 17 November 2011, 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300304
http://bit.ly/v4TyNb

Core Competencies for Doctoral Education in Public Health
Judith G. Calhoun, John E. McElligott, Elizabeth M. Weist, and James M.
Raczynski
Am J Public Health published 17 November 2011, 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300469
http://bit.ly/sGi8Fp

Promoting Transparency in Pharmaceutical Industry-Sponsored Research
Joseph S. Ross, Cary P. Gross, and Harlan M. Krumholz
Am J Public Health published 17 November 2011, 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300187
http://bit.ly/rM8uAU

The Secretary of Health and Human Services is announcing the 2011 Healthy Living Innovation Awards.  This is a new initiative at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that seeks to identify and acknowledge innovative health promotion projects within the last 3 years that have demonstrated a significant impact on the health status of a community.  Here’s a chance to showcase the results of CBPR!

The Healthy Living Innovation Awards offer an exciting chance to recognize and foster the spread of effective health promotion efforts, specifically community-based efforts that either make use of an entirely new tool or approach or have applied existing tools in an unusual way to improve community health and well-being.

Eligible organizations must have an innovative project in at least one of three health promotion areas:

Healthy weight
Physical activity
Nutrition

Nominated programs must have been piloted or implemented within the last three years and have demonstrated results. (Note: An innovation can be an existing program that has been implemented in a new way within the last three years.)

Awards will be given in the following categories

1)       Faith-Based and/or Community Initiatives
2)       Health Care Delivery
3)       Healthy Workplace
Large Employer > 500 Employees
Small Employer < 500 Employees
4)       Non-Profit
5)       Public Sector
6)       Schools (K-12)
7)       Let’s Move Cities and Towns

Winners will receive awards from the Secretary at a public recognition ceremony and have the opportunity to present their innovations at a national conference in spring 2012.

Nominations for the awards will be accepted January 18 through March 1, 2011.

To learn more about the 2011 Healthy Living Innovation Awards, please visit http://bit.ly/e8I8Xq

Increasingly, CBPR partnerships are looking for practical tools for evaluating policy and environmental change initiatives.  The Northwest Health Foundation’s recently released Community Changes Guidebook is intended to help fill the gap!  The guidebook was originally produced to improve program evaluation for the six grantees participating in the Foundation’s Alliance for the Promotion of Physical Activity and Nutrition program.

Download the guide at http://bit.ly/fGGvYI

Below is an excerpt from the preface to the guidebook.

“Over the past decade, public health has moved upstream from direct service provision and health education campaigns to address the underlying social, environmental, and economic determinants of health behaviors. This upstream focus has been embraced by advocates working to advance policies and improve environments that enable healthy eating and active living behaviors. However, this focus has presented challenges in evaluating policy and environmental change at the community level.

Advocates, researchers, and funders have realized that more sensitive measures of community change than those that traditional evaluation models typically provide are necessary to capture the progress that communities are making in creating healthier policies and environments. In addition, new skills and capacities need to be developed to identify how these changes are being achieved, and how they can be effectively communicated to key stakeholders.

In 2008, the Northwest Health Foundation launched a two-year capacity-building initiative called Northwest Community Changes to build the capacity of community coalitions to evaluate their progress of policy and environmental change. Six coalitions that had been previously funded by the Foundations APPAN (Alliance for the Promotion of Physical Activity and Nutrition) participated in a Community of Practice model that involved opportunities for co-learning and direct technical assistance from evaluation professionals. While each coalition was focused on different objectives, they each contributed their insights toward refining the NW Community Changes methodology.

The following document contains a multi-component methodology for evaluating community-driven policy and environmental change initiatives, including practical, user-friendly tools that each coalition used to measure their progress, mobilize their constituents and tell their story. We hope that you find this guidebook useful as you design, launch, and evaluate your strategies to improve community health.”

The Community-Based Public Health Caucus invites abstracts related to the science and practice of community-based public health for the 139th American Public Health Association Meeting and Exposition to be held from October 29- November 2, in Washington, DC. The theme of the 2011 meeting is Healthy Communities Promote Healthy Minds & Bodies, and we have particular interest in abstracts and proposals that reflect this theme and place community-based organizations in the lead position. The Caucus invites abstracts that enhance our knowledge of community-academic partnering in multi-disciplinary collaboration and a diversity of community-based public health activities, including basic and applied research projects, interventions, teaching and service learning projects.

In addition, we also invite abstracts that highlight efforts to use community-university partnerships or other types of collaborations, the development of partnerships, capacity-building, research translation into practice and/or policy, and innovative strategies, programs, models, and best practices to address community based public health issues. The Caucus has opportunities to increase youth involvement in APHA through limited stipends. We encourage our next generation of student leaders and young activists to also submit abstracts. Students under 17 must be accompanied by a chaperon. To submit an abstract please visit http://apha.confex.com/apha/139am/cbph.htm.

The National Congress of American Indians’ Policy Research Center has developed a Research Regulation Toolkit, an online collection of easy-to-use tools and resources to support tribal leaders and their communities in regulating research.  The toolkit’s strategies, considerations, checklists and promising practices are intended to support tribal communities in maximizing the possible benefits from research, while minimizing its potential harms.  Any community involved in research can benefit from the information in the toolkit.

Below is the toolkit table of contents.  To access the toolkit, visit
http://bit.ly/eLNydH

Research Regulation

Research Regulation in American Indian/Alaska Native Communities: Policy and Practice Considerations

Research Regulation in American Indian/Alaska Native Communities: A Guide to Reviewing Research Studies

Research Regulation Options for American Indian and Alaska Native Communities

Data Control Options in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities

Research Review Checklist for American Indian and Alaska Native Communities

Genetics

Genetics Research and American Indian/Alaska Native Communities

Community-Based Participatory Research

Community-Based Participatory Research in Amerian Indian and Alaska Native Communities

Additional  Resources

An online bibliography of additional research regulation resources

The Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Funders Interest Group (FIG) is comprised of government funding agencies, philanthropies and other funders that are committed to advancing CBPR as a strategy for conducting rigorous research that builds community capacity and changes practices and policies that make a real difference in people’s lives.  The FIG is expanding its membership to include other entities that wear hats as funders (e.g., university-based centers that provide seed grant funding for CBPR partnerships).

The CBPR FIG was formed in April 2007 to advance CBPR by fostering networking, shared learning and collaboration among funders in the U.S. and Canada who invest in CBPR.  As defined by the Kellogg Health Scholars Program, CBPR is “a collaborative approach to research 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 and has the aim of combining knowledge with action and achieving social change.” (www.cbprcurriculum.info).  Community-Campus Partnerships for Health provides staff and technological support for the CBPR FIG.  FIG membership is open to any funder in the U.S. or Canada that is interested or involved in funding CBPR.  Membership is free and voluntary.  A list or CBPR FIG member affiliations appears below.

The FIG meets quarterly by conference call and has occasional in-person meetings. To join the FIG, complete this 2011 quarterly call scheduling form, which also asks a few questions about the organization and the ways in which it supports CBPR:

http://bit.ly/h8XrCx