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Participation disparities among Black children with disabilities are widely documented in a variety of disciplines. Grounded in the Social Model of Disability and Disability Critical Race Theory, the purpose of this scoping review was to examine the extent to which occupational therapy has contributed to the study of participation outcomes among Black children with disabilities. Empirical studies published from 2010 to 2021 that reported participation outcome data published in nine frequently cited journals were included in this scoping review. Twenty studies were found to meet the criteria. Participation outcomes were reported for six occupations: play, social participation, activities of daily living (ADLs), education, sleep, and health management). The majority of studies reviewed recruited small samples of Black children with disabilities and provided limited to no description of the specific participation differences by racial/ethnic demographics. Occupational therapy has made few contributions to the growing literature on participation disparities for Black children with disabilities. Implications for practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aims: Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an optimal approach that brings together community stakeholders, researchers and practitioners in an effort to understand and address social issues and health disparities experienced by vulnerable populations. Latino immigrant families in the United States with youth and young families with disabilities have experienced a number of barriers in gaining positive health outcomes. These families face challenges in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, placing them at high risk for obesity, diabetes, and other chronic health conditions. The purpose of this study was to develop a healthy lifestyles intervention in collaboration with Latino immigrant families with youth and young adults with disabilities using a CBPR approach, and to examine the impact of the intervention from participants' perspectives. Methods: Grounded in the principles of CBPR, we developed a partnership with community stakeholders to create a healthy lifestyles intervention aimed at meeting the needs of Latino families in the United States. During and following implementation of the intervention, we conducted focus groups with 12 intervention participants to examine the impact of the intervention. Results: Participants identified the intervention program as meeting a need in the community and reported specific positive aspects related to health behaviors, social learning, inclusion, community participation, and peer advocacy. Discussion: CBPR healthy lifestyle interventions are relevant to the needs of Latino immigrant families with youth and young adults with disabilities. Health professionals should involve community residents in the design of healthy lifestyles programming to ensure strategies for change are relevant and relatable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This themed issue focuses on understanding and addressing several public health issues affecting communities today nationally and internationally. Health disparities, and global health in general, cover a large breadth of health concerns impossible to address in one issue. Here we provide a scope of some health disparities while focusing on health promotion and well-being of diverse populations, specifically within urban undeserved populations, rural communities in Peru, Roma minorities in Spain, and refugee communities. We focus on understanding contextual issue that affect health disparities as well as on examining the effectiveness of community-based interventions and community coalitions designed to address disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescents and young adults with disabilities experience several health inequalities and challenges in maintaining healthy lifestyles. As a group, individuals with disabilities experience higher rates of obesity compared to youth without disabilities. This study was designed to examine the types of challenges experienced by youth with disabilities and parents of youth with disabilities in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Strong evidence indicates that having a healthy lifestyle and preventing obesity are not only the result of an individual’s behavior related to physical activity and consumption of healthy products but also several complex factors in the person’s environment. This study was designed to understand the perceptions of youth with disabilities and their parents about the challenges they experience in engaging in physical activity and consuming healthy products, and ideas and strategies for promoting healthy lifestyles. Overall, youth with disabilities lack access to opportunities for engaging in physical activity as well as access to affordable foods. Implications for systems and policy changes are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, more than ever, occupational therapists are engaged in close partnerships with community organizations and community settings such as service agencies, refugee and immigrant enclaves, and faith-based organizations, to name a few, for the purpose of engaging in scholarship of practice. However, we know little about the views of community partners regarding the development and sustainability of university–community partnerships. The purpose of this article is twofold: First, we will describe a pilot study in which we gathered qualitative data from community partners engaged in scholarship of practice with faculty and students, regarding their views about benefits of partnerships, challenges, and characteristics of sustainable partnerships. Second, based on this pilot study and extensive experience of the authors, we propose a revised version of a partnerships model available in the literature. We illustrate the model through examples of the authors' collective experiences developing and sustaining successful university–community partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trends in policy, practice, and research point to the need for a community-engaged Scholarship of Practice (SOP) model that can be used to inform the development of occupational therapy practitioners, educators, and researchers. This article describes a community-engaged SOP model, the evidence justifying the need for such a model, and strategies to effectively create community-engaged practitioners, educators and career scientists within occupational therapy. We highlight several examples of community-based participatory research to further inform this model, and in turn, translate this knowledge back to communities for action and systems change that can affect the lives of people with disabilities and the communities in which they seek to live and participate long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One factor contributing to the childhood obesity epidemic is easy access to foods with high fat content available in public schools. After several years of advocacy efforts conducted by a city-wide coalition, the public schools system in an urban Midwestern city introduced fresh salad bars for lunch in three schools. Researchers have argued, however, that the introduction of salad bars in schools, without nutrition education, is not enough to produce changes in eating patterns. In this study, researchers used a target and control school to evaluate the impact of a 5-month nutrition education program. The results indicated that once the nutrition education program was implemented, the number of children consuming salad entrees and salad items doubled and quadrupled respectively, and knowledge about fruits and vegetables increased. Implications for community researchers interested in addressing childhood obesity are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While obesity impacts all ethnic groups in the United States, African Americans and Latinos are particularly at high risk for obesity. The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the literature on evidence-based culturally competent strategies for addressing and preventing obesity and discuss roles for occupational therapists working with populations at risk for obesity in the school or therapeutic clinical environment. A review was conducted of over 80 research articles describing successful interventions conducted in schools and communities targeting African Americans and Latino children. Although unique single strategies are highlighted in this paper, obesity interventions are complex and involved a number of multilevel strategies. The results of the analysis of the literature are presented according to strategies that promote healthy eating, physical activity, and overall healthy lifestyles. Along with the cultural competent strategies, we recommend specific roles for occupational therapists in order to promote the implementation of each particular strategy. Lastly, implications for occupational therapy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ciclovias create temporary spaces for physical activity by closing off streets to motorized traffic for short periods of time-typically a day at a time. In Chicago, these health promotion events are called 'Open Streets' and follow a route through five diverse communities. We report findings for evaluation of 2008-2009 Open Streets events. The evaluation creates a framework for examining Ciclovia outcomes and tracks attendance, participant characteristics, participant feedback, and community development outcomes. Evaluation data include attendance counts, participant surveys and semi-structured interviews with event organizers. Data analysis includes quantitative and qualitative methods.We use a capacity building conceptual model for interpreting community development outcomes. Contact with neighbors and exposure to new communities was a primary benefitof participation in Open Streets. These 'exposures' contribute to the strengthening of social networks among Open Streets communities. Moreover, we found that planning for Open Streets has contributed to participating communities' and organizations' capacities to engage in further health promotion and community development work both across and within communities. We find that Open Street events have been successful in promoting inter-community organizational partnerships, community organizing and resident interaction-all contributors to increased community capacity for engaging in successful health promotion activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on a participatory Internet initiative in an African American neighborhood. Evident use of technology in American society; Access to and use of Internet; Frustrations on searching information in the Internet.

Illustrates an empowerment evaluation case study on the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago's Youth Leadership Training Series. Emphasis on the training of youth volunteers; Objectives of the training program; Use of empowerment approach.

Evaluates the initiatives of community-based organizations. Use of participatory approach; Association between program goals, activities, outputs and outcomes; Evaluation of empowerment and evaluation skills.

Discusses the aspects of empowerment and participatory evaluation. End value of empowerment and participatory evaluation; Emphasis on transfering skills and building capacity; Implementation of empowerment.

Cites findings of a study conducted by the authors on racial discrimination among college students in the U.S. Impact of race on daily experiences of college students; Details of factor analysis of vignettes perceived to have suffered differential treatment; Relation between experiencing differential treatment and level of offensiveness.

Latinos with disabilities have historically been underrepresented in efforts to set the disability agenda and promote disability rights. This manuscript describes a capacity-building approach to community empowerment. Our goal was to empower Latinos with disabilities, increasing their degree of control over services and decisions that directly affect them. The capacity-building approach is grounded in a contextual/behavioral model of empowerment of people with disabilities. This approach emphasizes developing partnerships with local advocacy organizations and encourages active participation of people with disabilities and their families in identifying and addressing their own needs. Such capacity-building includes six major steps: (1) community entry and project planning; (2) identifying community concerns and strengths; (3) community organizing; (4) action planning; (5) monitoring and feedback; and (6) sustaining community organizing efforts. We illustrate the process with an example of an effort to promote compliance with the American with Disabilities Act in the Latino communities of Chicago, which resulted in over 70 actions and 24 outcomes over a period of 10 to 16 months. The capacity-building approach represents a community psychology effort to support ethnic minority individuals with disabilities in their struggle for equality and justice. To date, it has yielded encouraging results. Challenges for implementing this approach to community empowerment are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes a case study of international cooperation between an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the United States and Costa Rica in a project implemented to promote community development and primary prevention in a small rural town located in the south Pacific region of Costa Rica. The community prevention process was implemented in three consecutive phases: entry into the community and consolidation of the research team, needs assessment, and development of local initiatives to address identified needs. Two primary prevention projects implemented by community residents to modify environmental risks factors illustrate the development process: a campaign to increase residents' awareness of water contamination and a campaign to improve garbage collection. A participatory model of prevention and community development was implemented as an effort to foster community members' involvement in the development of solutions to their own problems. The advantages and limitations of multinational research and prevention efforts are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]