Involving the community: Committees
One of the important goals of this project was to increase community capacity in three ways:
Community involvement, therefore, was an important component from the outset of this project. To this end, an
Advisory Committee and a number of other
working committees were developed. These were designed to increase opportunities
for community members to become more actively involved, and to let the project
benefit from the expertise
of community members. Each committee was chaired by a member of the Project
Team to ensure that any decisions taken by the committee were communicated
to the coordinating body. Some committees were struck on an ad-hoc basis for
a limited time, to deal with one specific issue. The Lay Health Promoters/Participatory
Researchers were active on all
committees. This helped increase their understanding of formal organizational
structures and functions, and their capacity to effectively participate in
other community committees in future.
Advisory Committee
The project benefited from the participation of the broader community through an Advisory Committee (AC). Members
were recruited at the time the proposal was first developed. The community responded with great interest and willingness
to participate. AC members included representatives from Latin American and ethno-racial community organizations,
immigrant settlement organizations, cancer screening organizations, health professionals, community health centres,
public health programs, the Public Health Department of the City of Ottawa, women's participatory action research
experts, the University of Ottawa, Carleton University's School of Social Work, and Algonquin College. The AC met
every three months to provide input into the direction of the project. For a list of members see
Advisory Committee Members.
The Advisory Committee also provided a forum for transferring the model. From the outset, the project has been
working with other ethno-cultural communities to explore the potential of the Lay Health Promotion/Participatory
Research (LHP/PR) model to be implemented and evaluated beyond Ottawa's Latin American community for example, a
representative of the African Solidarity Association and English as a Second Language (ESL) director sits on the
Advisory Committee, and we have begun discussions for adapting the LHP/PR model for the African-Canadian community.
Some health education modules in multicultural ESL classes are already being delivered. A representative from the
Multicultural Program of the municipal health department co-chairs the Advisory Committee and is active on several
sub-committees. Her participation has permitted us to begin to explore the transferability of the LHP/PR model to
the Chinese community, and to other multicultural communities with which Public Health is currently involved.
For a list of AC members, see Advisory Committee
Members.
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Training Committee
This committee was very active during the first phase of the project. Members provided input into training curriculum
development, approved and verified content of the courses, and reviewed the four baseline
tests designed to
test students' knowledge at the beginning of the courses and again at the end.
The committee included strong participation from the health sector and a representative
from the Carleton University School of Social Work.
Ongoing feedback on specific content areas also was elicited via emails. Most
members of the committee also participated as resource persons during the training
implementation, with presentations and material in specific content
areas (for example, a public health nurse talked about her experiences planning
and implementing home visits).
Research Committee
The Research Committee met throughout the duration of the project to discuss the conceptual framework, research
workplans, data collection methods and tools, preliminary findings, and the implications for programming. The committee
consisted of the Co-investigators of the project, the Project Coordinator, a number of community members and LHP/PRs.
The committee also used emails to circulate information and to receive time-sensitive feedback (for example, on data
collection tools) between meetings.
The Research Committee defined its role as follows:
A number of research sub-committees were struck at different times, to promote integration and participation of Lay
Health Promoters/Participatory Researchers (LHP/PRs) into the practice of data collection and analysis. For instance, a
Focus Group Sub-committee ( consisting of two Co-investigators, a research assistant, and two members of LAZO) met to
discuss ways that focus groups might help us find out information about service providers. The sub-committee determined
the kind of questions that a focus group should be asked; developed ways to collect information during a focus
group; implemented the focus groups; and studied and analyzed the findings from the focus groups to present to the rest
of the team. Similarly, during the time that the qualitative interviews were being analyzed, a Qualitative Analysis
Sub-committee (consisting of two Spanish-speaking Co-investigators and four LHP/PRs) met frequently to better understand
the process of qualitative analysis. The sub-committee read and discussed all the interviews, developed a coding
mechanism, coded interviews, analyzed the findings, and developed ways to integrate the findings into the
practice of other LHP/PRs.
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Outreach and Dissemination Committee
The Outreach and Dissemination Committee's role was to ensure that information
about the project reached the community at large. The committee also responded
to requests for interviews from local journalists. Members developed a communication
strategy. Both Hispanic and 'mainstream' media reported on special events,
such as the Lay Health Promoter/Participatory
Researchers' graduation,
and the Health Festival which took place in March
2002. The committee also made suggestions about other types of dissemination,
such as participation in conferences and publication of articles. To date, many
articles about the project have appeared in Spanish and English: in the Ottawa
Citizen; the Ottawa Sun; Eco Latino; El Mensajero; Our Social Capital, the Magazine
of the Social Planning Council of
Ottawa; Perspectives - the Community Health Research Unit's Newsletter; and the
Western Journal of Nursing Research, for a special issue on 'Immigration and
Health'. Project members (Co-ordinator, LHP/PRs, Co-investigators) were interviewed
for television and radio several times, both in English and in Spanish (New RO,
CTV, CBC).
Transfer and Sustainability Committee
The Transfer and Sustainability Committee began its work from the first days of the project in anticipation of the
task of transferring aspects of the project to other communities and of securing future funding. With membership from
many ethnocultural organizations, it emphasized the importance of sustaining the commitment that was made to the
Hispanic community with this first project, as well as expanding and transferring the successful elements of the model
to other communities and types of health issues. The committee developed specific terms
of references to clarify its mandate and role. The committee became increasingly active in the last three months of 2002, implementing
concrete sustainability plans. A consultant was contracted to explore funding options, help refine programming models,
and begin writing grant proposals. A number of funders were approached and strategies to support these grants were
developed. The Advisory Committee as a whole also played an important role in transferring the model.
Navigation Committee
At the end of the first year, the Advisory Committee raised a concern that Lay Health Promoters/Participatory
Researchers (LHP/PRs) needed more information on how services were responding to women who were diagnosed with breast or
cervical cancer, but did not speak English or French well. As well, several other services needed to become aware of the
project, to enable them to respond better to these women's needs. An ad-hoc Navigation Committee was struck to ensure
that LHP/PRs became more familiar with the full range of health services available to all women and helped them
to 'navigate' the system. The committee met twice, which led to a half-day training session for LHP/PRs at the Ottawa
Regional Cancer Centre in May 2002.
