Meetings and Workshops 2010

On August 19-21, 2010, AACORN hosted its 4th Invited Workshop. The workshop entitled "Addressing Social Inequities: CBPR to Improve African American Environmental Contexts for Obesity Prevention" engaged a diverse audience of community-based partners, academic researchers, scholars-in-training, government sponsors and youth. The workshop charge was to create action from the evidence. The dialogical workshop format integrated community and academic perspectives to support generative discussions about the current state of knowledge, promising practices of social action strategies and community action projects, assessments of important research gaps, and planning for future food intake and physical activity research and community action initiatives.

Specific workshop objectives included:

1. Obtain a broad overview of how environmental inequities affecting African Americans have been successfully addressed through policy, community action, and social change, on issues other than those directly related to obesity;
2. Identify recent or current successes or promising works-in-progress which address inequities in the food and activity environments of African Americans;
3. Highlight current research documenting and understanding community perceptions of inequities in food and beverage marketing practices and strategies for addressing them;
4. Draft a model vision and research and action plan for improving food and physical activity environments of African Americans; and
5. Initiate a process for implementing this action plan with national and local African American community stakeholders.

As a result of this workshop, linked action and research options to improve environments for food intake and physical activity in African American communities will be generated, implemented and monitored. The proceedings and action plan from this workshop will be forthcoming.

AACORN gratefully acknowledges our sponsorship for this workshop:

• The National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
  (*Grant Number: 1R13MD005187-01)
• The AACORN five-year research grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• The Penn Minority Aging Research for Community Health (MARCH) Center

*Funding for this conference was made possible (in part) by the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities. The views expressed in written conference materials or publications and by speakers and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services; nor does mention by trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

A workshop consensus paper will be forthcoming. Click to view the following workshop presentation:

Environmental Scan: What is happening now and where is the potential in African American communities?
Presenter: Shiriki Kumanyika, PhD, MPH, AACORN Founder and Chair