A Collaborative Approach to Enhance Capacity and Power for Community-driven Policy Change: Project HEARD

Abstract

Background: A longstanding community-based participatory research center designed Project Health Equity via Advocacy for Resources in Detroit (HEARD) to enhance the capacity, collective power, and impact of community-based organizations—working in partnership with academics—to advance policy change for health equity in their communities. Objectives: We describe how Project HEARD supported community–academic teams to develop policy advocacy campaigns that included 1-year goals for equity-focused change. Methods: Project HEARD had the following main components: a cohort of community–academic teams, policy change workshops, policy advocacy grant, mentoring by community–academic pairs, and online strategy sessions. Lessons Learned: Supporting community-driven policy change requires recognizing and building on teams’ contexts, history, and expertise; tailoring support for teams with diverse policy experiences; and identifying additional ways to support sustainability. Conclusions: Project HEARD’s approach and initial lessons learned can inform projects in diverse contexts aiming to amplify community-led policy change to support health equity.