People Focused Research : Participatory Action Research in Canarsie, Flatlands, and Flatbush (2018)
During the summer of 2018, 42 students from Central Brooklyn high schools, colleges and universities came together under the banner of Wellness Empowerment for Brooklyn (WEB) as the Canarsie, Flatlands and Flatbush Participatory Action Research (CFF PAR) Team. The team was assembled to provide a youth- and community-generated understanding of how residents of Canarsie, Flatlands and Flatbush (CFF) perceive their own health, the health of their community, and what types of changes they believe will improve health and wellbeing in their neighborhoods.
The WEB team developed a central research question to better understand how residents perceive the assets and challenges to health and wellbeing in their neighborhoods: “In what ways can residents collaborate to increase advocacy and develop initiatives and policies to improve health and wellness in Canarsie, Flatlands and Flatbush?” This question drove the construction of a survey that explored access to healthy food, the physical and social environments, awareness of community resources, and economic, cultural and social health.Once the survey was developed and translated into Haitian Creole and Spanish, the team took to the streets and meeting places of Canarsie, Flatlands and Flatbush with the goal of surveying 1,000 residents. After two weeks, the team had conducted 1,063 community surveys, surpassing their goal. The team also conducted focus groups and interviews to document as many community voices and experiences as possible over the course of CFF PAR. The team entered the survey data collected, and engaged in reviewing and analyzing the results.