Bridging Gaps in Health: Advancing Community Health through University-Community Partnerships

Background and Purpose: There is a lack of research exploring how university-community-based partnerships effectively promote health equity and improve access to preventive care in underserved border regions. Health promotion efforts not only encourage individuals and communities to take control of their health, but they can foster a sense of community resilience. Collaboration and mutual support can bring communities together to work toward the common good and safeguard the health of all members. The research project aims to identify and evaluate effective strategies for building strong community partnerships to advance community-based health promotion efforts.

Method: The Healthy Families Healthy Kids Initiative (HFHKI) is a community-based project housed at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). It collaborates with health professionals, local providers, community organizations, shelters, and schools to serve the medically underserved populations of El Paso County. Our project was based in El Paso county, on the US-Mexico border of three states, Texas, New Mexico, and Chihuahua, and two countries, the United States and Mexico. El Paso County is predominantly Hispanic, with high rates of poverty. El Paso’s unique border location and underserved populations present significant challenges in ensuring access to health education and services.

Launched in 2021, HFHKI seeks to enhance access to hands-on learning, health education, preventive care, and service delivery. This project is founded on the belief that every community deserves access to good health and reliable health information. The project is supported by a small team of UTEP faculty, students, and various community partners. HFHKI offers activities to improve families’ and children’s physical and nutritional health, such as distributing educational materials, hosting health fairs and fitness events, providing nutrition and health literacy workshops, healthy living seminars, and parenting and child development group discussions.

This presentation highlights key lessons and insights from the project’s implementation, focusing on building and maintaining strong community partnerships and strategies to strengthen community health promotion efforts. As part of our efforts to support and advance community health, we interviewed 15 community partners and 15 participants our project has served. Interview data were analyzed using thematic data analysis to identify, analyze, and interpret our textual data and uncover recurring ideas or concepts relevant to the research goals.

Results: Major themes include 1) strategies for successful partnership, 2) health promotion processes, 3) motivation for health promotion, and 4) challenges and barriers to overcome. Overall, community partners shared positive feedback and highlighted the benefits the client population received from the project. Along with supporting the organization’s mission by offering valuable resources and educational activities, community partners appreciated the collaborative approach to community engagement. Participants responded positively to gaining new knowledge that helps them make informed decisions about their health and a stronger sense of community connectedness.

Conclusion and Implications: Effective university-community partnership has the potential to advance community health outcomes. Actionable strategies that promote collaboration and trust can lead to meaningful improvements in community health outcomes.