Analyzing the Landscape: Community Organizing and Health Equity

Abstract

In this paper we describe landscape analysis, a participatory research method for public health scholars interested in identifying and elucidating trends, opportunities, and gaps in the field. We used this method to understand the environmental and social conditions of primarily under-resourced communities of color, and identify key organizing strategies and practices used by community organizers to fight for policy and systems change around childhood health equity issues. Using a community-based participatory research approach, we developed and implemented a structured landscape analysis process among a national sample of 45 community-based organizations (CBOs). We discuss in detail our sampling procedures, protocol development, and analysis process. The resulting landscape analysis revealed similar challenges (e.g., lack of adequate housing, poor early childhood education resources) across diverse communities, and the best practices and innovative solutions used by CBOs to address these challenges. The landscape analysis process underscores the important role that social justice grassroots CBOs play in addressing the root causes of health inequity even though they may not identify, or be identified, as “public health” organizations.