Engaged communication of environmental health science: Processes and outcomes of urban academic-community partnerships

Abstract

Environmentally overburdened communities need information and resources to cope with hazards. We describe, and use a case study to depict, a participatory process of engaging Detroit stakeholders with academic researchers in the co-production of environmental health communication tools to enhance their capacity to address the unjust conditions. Over five years, we disseminated tools to 763 individuals who connected us to their network members so that we reached three times as many (n = 2,273) through snowball methods. On-going demand and evaluation findings indicated that our model was responsive to local circumstances, which may inform and encourage others to engage in such collaborations.

Acknowledgements

We thank each CAB member who provided their expertise to co-develop content and communication strategies to disseminate environmental health science including Dell Stubblefield, Deborah Beard, Donele Wilkins, Kathleen Slonager, Ken Fouty, Kimberlydawn Wisdom, Leila Mekias, Lena Wilson, Lionel Bradford, Lyn Jones, Maggie Striz Calnin, Mary Sue Schottenfels, Mihaela Mitrofan, Oday Salim, Ryan Hebert, Salina Ali, Samantha Eanes, Sandra Turner-Handy, Sarah Clark, Teresa Holtrop, Tina Reynolds, Tricia Verrill, Winona Bynum, Alexandra Lemieux, Rebecca Meunick, Blake Sanford, Chris Ross, and Guy Williams.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Notes

1 Evaluation data are from EHC and EHS attendees, n = 551, in calendar year 2019, January 1 through December 31; and percentages are based on question response count. Questions about communications were added to our evaluations in 2018, thus data is incomplete for that year. Do you have computer access? Total response n = 504, 37.3%, n = 188 replied “No”, 62.7%, n = 316 replied “Yes”. Do you use email? Total response n = 509, 48.3%, n = 246, replied “No”, 51.7%, n = 263, replied “Yes”.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (No. P30 ES020957).