This seminar will examine participatory research for policy advocacy and planning tools. Prof Israel will discuss selected research findings from a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project and the policy advocacy strategies used to translate these findings into policy change. She will explain the content, process and results of a training project aimed at enhancing the capacity of adult and youth community members to engage in effective policy advocacy.

Prof Israel will provide an analysis of the challenges of using a CBPR approach for policy advocacy, and will discuss lessons learned and recommendations for translating CBPR into policy and enhancing community capacity and increasing community engagement in policy advocacy to address health inequalities.

Christine will provide a description of the Porirua City Council’s award winning Village Planning Programme, a process of Council and community collaboration to develop action plans to improve each of Porirua City's diverse villages.

Prof Barbara Israel, DrPH, MPH, Professor Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of Michigan.has published widely in the areas of: the social and physical environmental determinants of health and health inequalities; the relationship among stress, social support, control and physical and mental health; community empowerment and health; and community-based participatory research (CBPR). She has extensive experience conducting community-based participatory research in collaboration with partners in diverse communities. Since 1995, she has worked together with academic and community partners to establish and maintain the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center, initially funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Israel is actively involved in several of these CBPR projects examining and addressing, for example, the social and physical environmental determinants of cardiovascular disease, the environmental triggers of childhood asthma, access to food and physical activity spaces, diabetes management and prevention, and capacity building for and translating research findings into policy change.

Christine Jacobson, Senior Policy Analyst, Porirua City Council.

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