Detroit Program Engages Community Members to Democratically Develop Solutions to Health ...

credit: toddbfreese

Detroit is dealing with health disparities that include diabetes, obesity, heart disease, hypertension, and pulmonary diseases, as well as infant and maternal mortality, and researchers at Wayne State University want to do something about it.

They've trained six residents in the Hope Village neighborhood to become "citizen leaders" and work together to tackle these issues, reports the Detroit Free Press.

"The solutions that the community members are coming up with are small, they're visible, and have a high degree of likelihood of success," says Dr.Pradeep Sopory, a WSU professor conducting research on health, risk, and science communication.

"They're not terribly innovative," he adds.

"They're not dramatic.

But because they are generated by the community, they are integrated into daily living a lot more easily."

Sopory and another WSU researcher spent a year training community members in the Everyday Democracy program at the Kettering Foundation, learning how to name, frame, deliberating, and act upon health disparities in their community, reports State of Health.

Then, with funding from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund, they launched Citizenship for Health in Hope Village in 2016.

The 100-block neighborhood is located between Dexter Avenue, Hamilton Avenue, the Lodge Service Drive, and the Conrail

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