Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Community-Based Organizational Capacity Building as a Strategy to Reduce Racial Health Disparities

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
The Journal of Primary Prevention Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

One of the biggest challenges facing racial health disparities research is identifying how and where to implement effective, sustainable interventions. Community-based organizations (CBOs) and community-academic partnerships are frequently utilized as vehicles to conduct community health promotion interventions without attending to the viability and sustainability of CBOs or capacity inequities among partners. Utilizing organizational empowerment theory, this paper describes an intervention designed to increase the capacity of CBOs and community-academic partnerships to implement strategies to improve community health. The Capacity Building project illustrates how capacity building interventions can help to identify community health needs, promote community empowerment, and reduce health disparities.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bediako, S. M., & Griffith, D. M. (2007). Eliminating racial/ethnic health disparities: Reconsidering comparative approaches. Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice, 2(1), 49–62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, B., Griffith, D. M., Robinson, K. J., & Hobbs, D. (2007a). YOUR blessed health: HIV/AIDS prevention & outreach through Flint pastors’ wives. Retrieved from Ruth Mott Foundation website: http://www.ruthmottfoundation.org.

  • Campbell, M. K., Hudson, M. A., Resnicow, K., Blakeney, N., Paxton, A., & Baskin, M. (2007b). Church-based health promotion interventions: Evidence and lessons learned. Annual Review of Public Health, 28, 213–234.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eng, E., Moore, K. S., Rhodes, S. D., Griffith, D. M., Allison, L., & Mebane, E., et al. (2005). Insiders and outsiders assess who is “The Community”: Participant observation, key informant interview, focus group interview, and community forum. In B. Israel, E. Eng, A. Schulz, E. Parker, et al. (Eds.), Methods for conducting community-based participatory research in public health (pp. 77–100). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

  • Freire, P. (1973). Education for a critical consciousness. New York: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freudenberg, N. (2004). Community capacity for environmental health promotion: Determinants and implications for practice. Health Education & Behavior, 31(4), 472–490.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Genesee County Health Department. (2003). Pathways. Unpublished grant proposal. Flint, MI.

  • Goodman, R. M., Speers, M. A., McLeroy, K., Fawcett, S., Kegler, M., Parker, E., et al. (1998). Identifying and defining the dimensions of community capacity to provide a basis for measurement. Health Education & Behavior, 25(3), 258–278.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Griffith, D. M., Allen, J. O., Zimmerman, M. A., Morrel-Samuels, S., Reischl, T. M., Cohen, S. E., et al. (2008). Organizational empowerment in community mobilization to address youth violence. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 34(3), S89–S99.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Griffith, D. M., & Bediako, S. M. (2007). The National Negro Health Movement: Policy implications for minority health and health inequities. Harvard Health Policy Review, 8(2), 89–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffith, D. M., Moy, E., Reischl, T., & Dayton, E. (2006). National data for monitoring and evaluating racial and ethnic health disparities: Where do we go from here? Health Education & Behavior, 33, 1–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Israel, B. A., Schulz, A. J., Parker, E. A., & Becker, A. B. (1998). Review of community-based research: Assessing partnership approaches to improve public health. Annual Review of Public Health, 19, 173–202.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kretzmann, J., & McKnight, J. (1993). Building communities from the inside out: A path toward finding and mobilizing a community’s assets. Chicago, IL: ACTA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Link, B. G., & Phelan, J. (1995). Social conditions as fundamental causes of disease. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Extra Issue, 80–94.

  • Miller, R. L., & Shinn, M. (2005). Learning from communities: Overcoming difficulties in dissemination from prevention and promotion efforts. American Journal of Community Psychology, 35(3/4), 169–183.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Patsy, T. (1972). Mink equal opportunity in education act, 20 U.S.C. § 7801.

  • Peterson, N. A., & Zimmerman, M. A. (2004). Beyond the individual: Toward a nomological network of organizational empowerment. American Journal of Community Psychology, 34(1/2), 129–145.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schulz, A. J., Williams, D. R., Israel, B., & Lempert, L. (2002). Racial and spatial relations as fundamental determinants of health in Detroit. The Milbank Quarterly, 80, 677–707.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shirey, L., Griffith, D. M., Brady, J., Kruger, D. J., Morrel-Samuels, S., & Greene-Moton, E. (2008). Challenges and lessons learned developing a community-based health survey. Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education and Action, 2(2), 99–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Speer, P. W., & Hughley, J. (1995). Community organizing: An ecological route to empowerment and power. American Journal of Community Psychology, 23(5), 729–748.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • US Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2009). Economy at a glance [Database]. Retrieved on September 18, 2009 from http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/print.pl/eag/eag.mi_flint_msa.htm.

  • US Census Bureau. (2006). American fact finder [Database]. Retrieved on January 20, 2008 from http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en.

  • Wallerstein, N., & Bernstein, E. (1988). Empowerment education: Freire’s ideas adapted to health education. Health Education Quarterly, 15(4), 379–394.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wandersman, A. (2003). Community science: Bridging the gap between science and practice within community-centered models. American Journal of Community Psychology, 31(3/4), 227–242.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, G. H. (2003). The determinants of health: Structure, context, and agency. Sociology of Health & Illness, 25(Silver Anniversary Issue), 131–154.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, D. R. (2005). Patterns and causes of disparities in health. In D. Mechanic (Ed.), Policy challenges in modern health care (pp. 115–134). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, D. R., & Braboy-Jackson, P. (2005). Social sources of racial disparities in health. Health Affairs, 24(2), 325–334.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman, M. A. (2000). Empowerment theory: Psychological, organizational and community levels of analysis. In J. Rappaport & E. Seidman (Eds.), Handbook of community psychology (pp. 43–63). New York: Kluwer/Plenum.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Derek M. Griffith.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Griffith, D.M., Allen, J.O., DeLoney, E.H. et al. Community-Based Organizational Capacity Building as a Strategy to Reduce Racial Health Disparities. J Primary Prevent 31, 31–39 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-010-0202-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-010-0202-z

Keywords

Navigation