Research-Community Partnerships to Catalyze Improvements in In-Home and Rural Community Food Environments

Student Member Price: $10.00

Poor food environments contribute to obesity and diet-related diseases (such as cardiovascular disease) and rural communities are more likely to struggle with healthy food access, putting residents at greater health risk. Using the Social Ecological Model as the intervention framework, a rural community collaborated with two research teams to develop and deploy evidence-based nutrition interventions targeting residents across the lifespan while improving systems, environment, and policies in order to leverage resources, fill existing intervention gaps, and accelerate health improvement. Presenters will share the value of research-community partnerships to build on existing micro and macro food environment infrastructure, measure and report outcomes, expand reach, improve healthy food choices, and sustain changes after research initiatives are completed.

CPE Level: Level 2 (intermediate knowledge/experience)
CPEU: 1.0

Performance Indicators

• 12.2.3 Identifies individual, organization and government roles and responsibilities within public health and health care systems.
• 12.1.3 Collaborates with community partners and stakeholders in promoting health and disease prevention.
• 2.3.4 Identifies opportunities for mutually beneficial partnerships with individuals or organizations with shared visions.

Learning Objectives

• Define the value of forming research-community partnerships to accelerate rural micro and macro food environment improvements, increase intervention reach, and ultimately improve healthy food choices.
• Explain how to leverage research partnerships to ensure nutrition interventions are deployed at all levels —individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and policy— of the Social Ecological Model in rural communities using examples from Hearts Beat Back: Heart of New Ulm Project (HONU) and New Ulm – Healthy Options via the Mealtime Environment at Home (NU-HOME) research initiatives.
• Describe how to align research and community nutrition goals and objectives to maximize impact and sustainability for all partner organizations.

Speakers

• Rebecca Lindberg
• Jayne Fulkerson
• Kelly Kunkel