The Role and Potential of Communities in Population Health Improvement Workshop Summary (2015) / Chapter Skim
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2 The Power of Communities
2 The Power of Communities
Pages 5-12
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From page 5... ...
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: SCREENING FOR HAZARDS WHERE PEOPLE LIVE, WORK, LEARN, AND PLAY The San Francisco Bay area in California has been the site of a great deal of community-based environmental justice activity over the past decade. Because there had not been any systematic study to identify patterns of environmental impact in the area, Pastor and colleagues entered into a multiyear relationship with 35 different environmental and public health groups to form the Bay Area Environmental Health Collaborative (BAEHC)
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From page 6... ...
In addition to preparing an academic paper on the use of this s patial autocorrelation approach in environmental justice research, Pastor and colleagues released a draft report at a scientific meeting, wrote an o pinion piece in the San Francisco Chronicle, and held a press conference at a efinery in Richmond, California, with the community groups in the col r laborative. Community organizers expressed their concern that the technical nature of the report would make it difficult for others to understand the significance of the work done by the researchers and community groups.
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From page 7... ...
, an environmental justice screening methodology was developed to identify communities that may be disproportionately overexposed to pollutants. Pastor noted that this is a screening tool, not an assessment tool; that it is currently focused primarily on air quality; and that it relies on available secondary databases (e.g., state and national data on environmental hazards, modeling from emissions inventories, census data)
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From page 8... ...
The results of ground truthing in eight Los Angeles communities were released in the report, Hidden Hazards, which was featured in the Los Angeles Times newspaper and on television FIGURE 2-2 Hazards and sensitive receptor locations in the Wilmington neighborhood of Los Angeles as identified in state databases (squares) and from a community ground truthing exercise (circles)
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From page 9... ...
Pastor noted that community members were very engaged and spoke before the City Council about their experiences with ground truthing, arguing in support of the resolution. Now in its early stages, the Clean Up Green Up initiative is focused on reducing and preventing pollution, developing additional park space, and revitalizing neighborhoods.3 AUTHENTIC COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Using insights gained from these and other equity projects, Pastor shared his perspective on community engagement, community organizing, crafting the narrative, and fostering change for better community health.
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From page 10... ...
As an example, Pastor described the Community Coalition of South Los Angeles (CoCo) ,4 which was originally formed to combat the crack cocaine epidemic in the area.
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From page 11... ...
Pastor stressed the importance of academics supporting communities in conducting rigorous research and in developing relationships with technical people inside government agencies. Academics can play an important role in this form of inside organizing by reaching out to technical people who can verify that community data, methods, and claims have merit.
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