Innovative participatory evaluation methodologies to assess and sustain multilevel impacts of two community-based physical activity programs for women in Colombia.

BACKGROUND: Community-based physical activity (PA) programs are appealing to women in Latin America and show potential for improving women's health. This study aimed to engage healthy middle-aged women, breast cancer survivors and local stakeholders participating in two publicly funded community-based PA programs in Bogotá, Colombia (Recreovía and My Body) to assess and visually map the perceived barriers, facilitators, and outcomes to promote programs' improvement, scaling and sustainability. METHODS: We used two participatory action research methods, the 1) Our Voice citizen science method to capture data and drive local change in built and social environmental facilitators and barriers that influence women's engagement in community-based PA; and 2) Ripple Effects Mapping to visually map the intended and unintended outcomes of PA programs. We used thematic analysis to classify the results at the individual, social, and community levels. RESULTS: The stakeholders engaged in the participatory evaluation included cross-sector actors from the programs (N = 6) and program users (total N = 34) from the two programs (Recreovía N = 16; My Body N = 18). Program users were women with a mean age of 55.7 years (SD = 8.03), 65% lived in low-income neighborhoods. They identified infrastructure as the main feature affecting PA, having both positive (e.g., appropriate facilities) and negative (e.g., poorly built areas for PA) effects. Regarding program improvements, stakeholders advocated for parks' cleaning, safety, and appropriate use. The most highlighted outcomes were the expansion and strengthening of social bonds and the engagement in collective wellbeing, which leveraged some participants' leadership skills for PA promotion strategies in their community. The facilitated dialogue among program users and stakeholders fostered the sustainability and expansion of the community-based PA programs, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of both participatory methodologies provided a multidimensional understanding of the programs' impacts and multisectoral dialogues that fostered efforts to sustain the community-based PA programs.

Examining Therapeutic Recreation Service Delivery for Adults with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities in Community-Based Settings

With there being a nine-and-a-half percent increase in prevalence of intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) among children in the U.S. over nine years (i.e., 2009-2017;Zablotsky et al., 2019), the number of adults with IDD in our communities is growing and there is great potential for CTRS to produce multi-level and influential opportunities, outcomes, and benefits for adults with IDD through therapeutic recreation (TR) services in community-based settings. However, community-based settings is not a well-represented employment setting among CTRSs in the U.S. This mixed methods study aimed to identify best practices, barriers, and facilitators CTRSs experience when providing TR services to adults with IDD in community-based settings, as well as to examine how COVID has impacted TR service delivery and ideas for future provision of virtual TR services among these CTRSs. A total of 278 CTRSs across the country who work with adults with IDD in community-based settings completed a Qualtrics survey and 15 of these CTRS completed a follow-up, individual interview. Integrated data analysis revealed widespread impacts of COVID, lack of use of evidence-based practice, lack of involvement in evidence-based practice research, and need for standardized assessment and use of evidence-based practice to increase billing for TR services. Important implications for TR service delivery among adults with IDD in community-based settings were revealed, as well as directions for future research.

Stepping in and up to meet community needs: How community-based college access and success programs responded to COVID-19.

The current study uplifts the efforts of community-based college access and success programs (CAS) to support the college preparation, matriculation, and persistence of underserved students during COVID-19. Fifty-eight CAS across the United States completed an online survey that gathered information about organizational demographics, COVID-19 challenges, responses to challenges, and communication with constituents and funding needs during COVID-19. Results suggested CAS faced multiple challenges due to COVID-19 that affected the organization, staff, and constituents. Results also revealed organizations of varying sizes, locations, and demographics responded to challenges by revising existing programming for students, creating new programming for students and caretakers, and updating staff policies to meet ongoing and emergent needs despite limited resources. CAS are essential service providers for students who are under- and mis-served in formal education systems. Recommendations are provided for how such organizations can be invested in and better prepared for future disruptions.

Access to Multicultural Children's Literature During COVID-19.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, students, families, and educators have faced unprecedented challenges. These challenges have disproportionately impacted racially/ethnically diverse, low-income communities because of long-standing health system, socioeconomic, and educational inequities. With closures of schools, libraries, and childcare centers, many students were disconnected from their community and did not have access to books. Parents' and educators' concerns centered around students falling behind academically and socially. In this article, we explain the motivation and rationale for a social justice initiative to provide students of color from low-poverty areas with access to high-quality multicultural children's literature at home. We describe our literacy partnership with a local after-school program serving participant students and families, research underpinning the initiative, and our process for selecting high-quality multicultural literature book sets and offer suggestions about how to facilitate comprehension and motivational support for home-based reading. We also offer a list of recommended literature and discuss outcomes and implications of this project.