The Radical Welcome Engagement Restoration Model and Assessment Tool for Community-Engaged Partnerships.

People experiencing addiction, houselessness, or who have a history of incarceration have worse health outcomes compared with the general population. This is due, in part, to practices and policies of historically White institutions that exclude the voices, perspectives, and contributions of communities of color in leadership, socio-economic development, and decision-making that matters for their wellbeing. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches hold promise for addressing health inequities. However, full engagement of people harmed by systemic injustices in CBPR partnerships is challenging due to inequities in power and access to resources. We describe how an Allentown-based CBPR partnership-the Health Equity Activation Research Team of clinicians, researchers, and persons with histories of incarceration, addiction, and houselessness-uses the Radical Welcome Engagement Restoration Model (RWERM) to facilitate full engagement by all partners. Data were collected through participatory ethnography, focus groups, and individual interviews. Analyses were performed using deductive coding in a series of iterative meaning-making processes that involved all partners. Findings highlighted six defining phases of the radical welcome framework: (a) passionate invitation, (b) radical welcome, (c) authentic sense of belonging, (d) co-creation of roles, (e) prioritization of issues, and (f) individual and collective action. A guide to assessing progression across these phases, as well as a 32-item radical welcome instrument to help CBPR partners anticipate and overcome challenges to engagement are introduced and discussed.

Community-engaged Research Partnerships as Healing Spaces for Health Professionals and Researchers.

Drawing from collective experiences in our capacity building project: Health Equity Activation Research Team for Inclusion Health, we argue that while community-engaged partnerships tend to focus on understanding health inequities and developing solutions, they can be healing spaces for health professionals and researchers. Data were obtained from a 15-month participatory ethnography, including focus groups and interviews. Ethnographic notes and transcripts were coded and analyzed using both deductive and inductive coding. Practices of radical welcome, vulnerability, valuing the whole person, acknowledging how partnerships can cause harm, and centering lived experience expertise in knowledge creation processes were identified as key characteristics of healing spaces. Ultimately, health professionals and researchers work within the same social, political and economic contexts of populations with the worst health outcomes. Their own healing is critical for tackling larger systemic changes aimed at improving the well-being of communities harmed by legacies of exclusion.

Understanding the role of the promotora in a Latino diabetes education program.

We explore the role of the promotora de salud (health promoter) who provided diabetes self-management education to Puerto Rican diabetics in her community. The education program was developed as a hospital and community-based organization partnership. Information from both Spanish-language focus groups with 35 class participants and an in-depth interview with the promotora indicated patients appreciated having the classes taught in Spanish by a Latina promotora from their community. Respondents reported satisfaction with the program, increased ability to self-manage diabetes, and strengthened connections with other Latino diabetics. Terms patients used for the promotora included comadre, hijita, and buena profesora. Some of these words denote almost kinship-level connections, suggesting that patients were forming strong connections with the promotora. Specific promotora roles were identified but varied among patients, promotora, and the literature. This hospital and community-based organization partnership promotora model appears to be effective for providing chronic disease self-management education in an urban community setting.

Community-based participatory research shows how a community initiative creates networks to improve well-being.

BACKGROUND: Evidence from more than 30 years of research suggests a profound relationship between social participation and human health and well-being. People who hold meaningful roles in supportive social contexts live longer, get sick less often, suffer less disability, and recover faster from life-threatening events. However, despite ample evidence of benefit, the complex phenomenon of social participation has proved difficult to untangle in creating policies or programs for optimizing health in diverse communities. For vulnerable populations, the answer to the question of what contexts invite meaningful participation and improve well-being remains unclear. PURPOSE: This study explores how diverse participants engage in a supportive network and proposes a theoretic model of community-building for health promotion. METHODS: Principles of community-based participatory research were used for qualitative study using in-depth interviews, with a purposeful sample of 28 members of a service exchange program in an urban community. RESULTS: Four primary themes that were related to participation in the service exchange program were identified: (1) motivation for participation; (2) service exchange, or reciprocity, as vital to the program, with distinct benefits in a heterogeneous group; (3) occurrence of personal and community growth; and (4) health promotion and improved well-being. A model of how participation in the service exchange leads to community-building is presented. CONCLUSIONS: The model suggests that opportunities for reciprocity are fundamental to healthy community development in heterogeneous groups. Further study of how reciprocity encourages diverse populations to work together to create a landscape of healing may provide a valuable framework for health promotion.