HUD’s Livable Communities Conference: Building Capacity for Change Through Evidence Dissemination and Partnership-Based Training

Background: A growing prioritization for addressing the health needs of low-resource individuals in public housing has resulted from increased recognition of disparities and the effects of housing and the built environment on residents’ health. With scarce financial resources, creating capacity for local partnerships to plan and implement small-scale, evidence-based improvements may be more sustainable. The “Livable Communities Conference” held in Philadelphia in 2011 is one example of a capacity-building event.

Objectives: The goals of the event were to engage local housing authority staff, residents, and service providers in education and planning around health disparities issues in public housing by presenting evidence of effective practices, creating networking opportunities for developing strategic partnerships, and training to foster action planning for strategic local initiatives.

Methods: The 2-day conference included one day of scientific and practice-based presentations and one day of professionally facilitated workshop activities including small and larger group discussions.

Conclusions: The event successfully convened wide-ranging stakeholders and exposed participants to “bigger picture” views, and was successful in disseminating best practices information from research and practice perspectives. Wider recruiting for participation and improved integration of Day 1 and Day 2 activities and participants could have yielded even further impact. Based on the success and the perceived potential impact of this event, facilitating similar community capacity-building events that convene a wide range of stakeholders to discuss health in public housing and low-resource communities is recommended. Discussions around the personal dynamics of partnerships and resistance to change also proved useful.