Developing a University-Community Partnership Model Integrating Research and Intervention to Improve Food Decisions in Families and Communities

A major goal of the Community Plant Food Project is to develop partnerships between the Cornell Community Nutrition Program and Community-based organizations, including Cooperative Extension. A core principle behind this work is integrating research and intervention. Based on our work in Rochester, New York, we have developed a process and principles for effective partnerships. This new paradigm what we call the University-Community Partnership Model is a team effort that builds on the experiential literature in the fields of communication, leadership, community and team development, sociology, and participatory research and action. We have applied this model both to increase our understanding of Family Food Decision-making and to develop programs for families. In this project, we have used a variety of qualitative methods to understand food decisions from the perspectives of families and community stakeholders, including a group method for analyzing our qualitative interview data. For our survey of families, we developed the Enhanced Response Method, an approach for improving the validity and reliability of community surveys with families and, at the same time, building relationships with families and other stakeholders in the community for integrated and sustainable interventions. Because the knowledge we develop through the partnership and the interventions we seek to implement are products of the process, we are constantly seeking to refine this knowledge and to adapt emerging interventions through an ongoing evaluation process we call the Continuous Improvement Method.