Community-based participatory research, social capital, and health-promoting public policy : a multi-site case study of youth-involved partnerships

Access restricted to OSU communityThis dissertation presents results from a study to investigate the public policy impacts of community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships with strong youth involvement. After an introduction to public policy as an intervention strategy and the potential of CBPR for engaging in public policy action, Chapter 1 presents a framework of the relationships between community social capital, community political engagement, the identification of policy objectives, and the achievement of policy outcomes within community-based participatory research projects. Also discussed is an overview of the larger multi-site research study, "Documenting the Impacts of Community Based Participatory Research on Health-Promoting Public Policy," conducted from October 2003 to August 2004 and the methods that are common to the present study. Chapter 2 presents an in-depth case study of one CBPR partnership, Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ). It documents the research and policy action of this community-health department-evaluator partnership with particular attention to its objectives, activities, strategies and impact using a policy making framework of policy Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. steps. Results indicate there is a substantial role for CBPR partnerships to engage in policy steps in efforts to help impact on policy outcomes. Chapter 3 presents the successes, barriers and lessons learned with regard to youth participation in the LEJ partnership. A community-capacity building framework was helpful in understanding the contributions youth make to communities through their research and policy action activities. Chapter 4 offers a cross-site case analysis of three CBPR partnerships that have strong youth participation and have led to public policy change at various levels. Findings include that community social capital and community political engagement are important precursors to the development of a partnership's policy orientation. Among those factors contributing to the development of public policy objectives are organizational alliance-building, resource-sharing, leadership qualities that include motivating others, and relationships with key political leadership. Chapter 5 summarizes key findings from Chapters 2, 3 and 4, and presents an expanded discussion of study limitations. It then presents implications of this study for further research and for helping promote policy change through CBPR