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Using Community Surveys to Inform the Planning and Implementation of Environmental Change Strategies: Participatory Research in 12 Washington Communities
Author(s) -
Gabriel Roy M.,
Leichtling Gillian J.,
Bolan Marc,
Becker Linda G.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1007/s10464-012-9543-5
Subject(s) - community based participatory research , participatory action research , health psychology , citizen journalism , participatory planning , data collection , resource (disambiguation) , community health , public health , environmental planning , public relations , environmental health , environmental resource management , sociology , political science , geography , medicine , nursing , computer network , social science , environmental science , anthropology , computer science , law
A number of studies have demonstrated the efficacy of environmental change strategies (ECS) in effecting community‐level change on attitudes and behaviors related to underage drinking (Treno and Lee in Alcohol Res Health 26:35–40, 2002; Birckmayer et al. in J Drug Educ 34(2):121–153, 2004). Primary data collection to inform the design of these strategies, however, can be resource intensive and exceed the capacity of community stakeholders. This study describes the participatory planning and implementation of community‐level surveys in 12 diverse communities in the state of Washington. These surveys were conducted through collaborations among community volunteers and evaluation experts assigned to each community. The surveys were driven by communities’ prevention planning needs and interests; constructed from collections of existing, field‐tested items and scales; implemented by community members; analyzed by evaluation staff; and used in the design of ECS by community‐level leaders and prevention practitioners. The communities varied in the content of their surveys, in their sampling approaches and in their data collection methods. Although these surveys were not conducted using traditional rigorous population survey methodology, they were done within limited resources, and the participatory nature of these activities strengthened the communities’ commitment to using their results in the planning of their environmental change strategies.