On the Road to Share Our Community-Engaged Research on Narrative Power
Since 2022, the COMM HSP team based at the University of Minnesota has been collaborating with Center for Health Progress (CHP) on an innovative community-based research partnership.
CHP is a member-led power-building organization that develops grassroots leaders to win campaigns and advance policies that limit corporate power in health care and strengthen government oversight. The organization focuses its leadership and resources on three key change efforts – power building, health care system redesign, and narrative building. COMM HSP researchers and CHP worked together to design a study to answer a research question motivating CHP organizers in their work to build narrative power: How do we counter the dominant narrative about health in a way that resonates with people, encourages them to see themselves in a counter-narrative, and mobilizes them to take action?
In July they wrapped up the analysis stage of their three-phase study and started sharing the results publicly with key audiences, first at the Colorado Health Symposium in Keystone Colorado, and next week at the American Public Health Association annual meeting, in Minneapolis.
CHP just published a post describing this exciting project, “Grounding Research in Communities Most Impacted to Build Narrative Power.” Check out their post in either English or Spanish here:
English SpanishThe COMM HSP / CHP collaboration will be presenting at APHA in two sessions:
- Sunday, October 27 at 4:30 PM “The power of narrative strategy to achieve health equity: Harnessing CBPR to support grassroots community organizing” (presented by Marissa Hallo and Jasmine Sandate)
- Monday, October 28 at 2:45 PM “Participatory research to advance narrative strategy: Results from survey research to support community organizing for health justice” (presented by University of Minnesota postdoctoral fellow Kristina Medero)
The team has also prepared a handout to accompany their APHA session next week describing the project. We look forward to sharing more about our community-grounded narrative research with CHP in the coming months.