Improving the health of populations
through proven methods and new ideas.
Rochester Healthy Community Partnership (RHCP) is a community-academic partnership
with a mission to promote health and well-being of the community through
community-based participatory research (CBPR), education and civic engagement to achieve health equity.
Our research has led to:
An effective, sustainable, community-owned tuberculosis prevention and control program in socially marginalized groups.
Attenuation of the risk of cardiovascular disease among immigrants and refugee families in Minnesota who are living in poverty through community-led work.
Digital storytelling by immigrants and refugees to inform other patients of their experience of trying to manage chronic diseases such as diabetes.
Reduction of cancer screening disparities among people with limited English proficiency.
Co-creation of a childhood obesity prevention program among at-risk youth in after-school programs.
We develop, implement, and assess socio-culturally
and linguistically tailored interventions
to improve the health of our community.
We have built a strong community research program by training many partners in community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods, human participant protection, and research procedures.
Our thorough training and mentorship have helped diverse learners from fields like medicine and nursing to gain admission to medical school and achieve academic success.
A Model for Community-Engaged Research
RHCP has a strong track record of engaging research participants from minority populations who remain underrepresented in clinical trials, programs and initiatives aimed at improving health among these populations.
A comprehensive evaluation conducted by the University of New Mexico in 2016 demonstrated that RHCP’s success is largely due to continuous and active community leadership and effective leveraging of resources. Founding community and academic partners have cultivated a collaborative leadership style that has been productive and promotes leadership capacity among community partners. RHCP participatory processes directly inform health outcomes.
Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a collaborative way of doing research that engages community members, uses local knowledge in the understanding of health problems and the design of interventions, and equitably involves researchers and community partners in all aspects of research.
RHCP uses collaborative, equitable partnership principles in all aspects of its work. Academic and community partners work together to define the problem, collect information, find solutions, implement programs, and interpret and disseminate results.
RHCP is committed to sustainability of partnership processes and products.
RHCP CORE VALUES
RHCP promotes learning from each other, learning together, and capacity building among all partners.
Process is the most important RHCP product. This process is built on a foundation of partnership dynamics that include participatory decision-making, trust, respect, diversity, appreciation of individual and community assets, and shared resources.