Disentangling the role of culture, life stage, and information design to facilitate equity in data report back

Project Summary/Abstract The environmental justice (EJ) framework highlights the social, political, and economic assumptions contributing to and producing unequal protection in EJ communities; highlighting that understanding a community's perspectives is crucial to conducting impactful environmental

health research and literacy initiatives. There remains a need for novel research that facilitates responsible reporting back of research results (RBRR) in a manner that raises data and environmental health literacy (D/EHL) and supports communities striving for environmental health and structural change. Despite recent progress in addressing longstanding EJ issues, the

bioethics literature focuses on: (a) harm, not beneficence or justice; (b) underestimates opportunities to raise D/EHL among communities; and (c) commonly employs risk communication strategies that are technical, and not based in a cultural model. The project goal is to create and pilot a national model of report back that engages diverse rural and urban EJ communities to

ensure that RBRR reaches all populations in a manner tailored to their individual needs, including culture, life stage, language, and design. Rooted in bioethics, the program focuses on how to report back social determinants of health and soil and air quality data in rural and urban communities that are disproportionately impacted by pollution. Building upon trusted and

established long-term partnerships and leveraging existing datasets, this project addresses cross- cutting research themes anchored in health equity, communication approaches, and the use of data report back. Through partnerships with community-based organizations and local government agencies, this project will address community concerns and social/EJ challenges in

both rural, predominately Hispanic mining communities and urban, Black/African American communities. The specific aims of this proposal include: (1) Using an equity-centered community design approach to develop different design types and identify what influences preferred report back strategies, (2) Within the context of specific populations (cultural identity) and groups (life

stage), elucidate key D/EHL learning outcomes by design type, (3) Identify, evaluate, and mitigate the unintentional consequences of environmental health report back by working with both rural and urban EJ communities, and (4) Develop capacity building tools for RBRR, train knowledge mediators/brokers and evaluate the efficacy of these tools to support the role of “environmental

counselors”.