Community Engagement

A diverse group who represent a variety of settings –including public health, education, and health care –gather quarterly with the HPRC team to collaboratively generate ideas for engagement of partners in implementation of strategies that effectively reduce future obesity prevalence and disparities in obesity, provide input on research design and analysis, and identify areas for increased community capacity building. Learn more about this group.

The Leaders in Health (LIH) program strengthens community health initiatives through introductory training in public health research and science. The goal of the LIH program is to build the capacity of our community partners by providing participants with an introduction to the fundamentals of community-based participatory research (CBPR), program planning, and evaluation. Participants attend interactive training sessions, complete assignments, and receive support to create an action plan to enhance their work. Learn more about this program.

An external group of practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and community leaders in the field of childhood obesity prevention has collaborated extensively with the Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity for the Childhood Obesity Intervention Cost-Effectiveness Study (CHOICES). Expert advisors’ main contributions include assistance with selection of strategies to promote healthy child weight, recommendation of relevant resources for determining the effectiveness and/or costs of strategies, providing feedback on the process of conducting and/or results of the cost-effectiveness analyses, providing advice and feedback on communication channels and materials, and guiding dissemination of key findings. Learn more about this project.

The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacted communities of color, with lower income and more racially and ethnically diverse communities hit particularly hard. In Massachusetts, these communities have also seen less benefit from COVID-19 vaccines and have lower vaccination rates compared to the state average. Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) have the relationships, trust, and expertise to best serve their communities and increase vaccine equity. From May 2021 to June 2022, we partnered with CBOs in Brockton, Lynn, and Springfield to promote vaccine confidence, access, and uptake in Black, Latinx, and immigrant populations. A total of 16 health ambassadors Though the project has come to an end, please use this page to explore resources and tools used to help promote vaccine confidence. Learn more about this project.

Our Youth Task Force (YTF) project was comprised of a diverse group of youth in grades 10-12 from schools across Boston. Each year the YTF members conducted a research project that built their own research and leadership skills while informing the work of the HPRC and its community partners. We have organized community and advisory committees focused on specific projects or activities, including the Maine-HPRC Steering Committee, the Maine Youth Overweight Collaborative (MYOC) Steering Committee, the Out of School Nutrition and Physical Activity (OSNAP) Research Committee, the Physical Activity Policy Group, and the Scientific Advisory Board. Members of our team have participated in the Partnership to Improve Community Health Project (PICH) and the Boston Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health: Obesity and Hypertension Demonstration Project (REACH).

This project evaluated the impact of the Boston Public Schools’ Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW)-funded initiatives to increase and improve physical education and physical activity in schools. We evaluated “Active School Day” policy implementation using a quasi-experimental design, conducted cost-effectiveness analysis using evaluation findings, and rapidly communicated and disseminated research findings to key partners via targeted, audience-specific strategies.

Play Across Boston was undertaken by the HPRC in collaboration with Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society and a broad-based community advisory board. Play Across Boston led a comprehensive community-based assessment of physical activity programs and facilities for Boston youth. The goal of this project was to document youth sports and physical activity resources in Boston in order to understand how community resources and individual and household characteristics combine to influence levels of physical activity.