The One-Pager: A Practical Policy Advocacy Tool for Translating Community-Based Participatory Research Into Action

Abstract

The multiple and diverse perspectives, skills, and experiences inherent in community-academic partnerships make them uniquely positioned to educate policy makers and advocate for health equity. Effective communication tools are critical to successfully engage in the policy-making process. Yet few resources emphasize the development and use of practical tools for translating community-based participatory research (CBPR) findings into action. The purpose of this article is to describe a CBPR process for developing and using a one-page summary, or "one-pager," of research findings and their policy implications. This article draws on the experience of the Healthy Environments Partnership (HEP), a community-academic partnership in Detroit, Michigan. In addition to describing these processes, this article includes a template for a one-pager and an example of a one-pager that was written for and presented to federal policy makers. KeywordsCommunity-based participatory research; policy; one-pager; communication; practical tool; translation A key principle of CBPR is its commitment to the translation of research findings into action. 1 Although action can take many forms, as Themba and Minkler 2 , p. 349 have noted, "to influence the lives of large numbers of people, action aimed at changing policy is often critical." The multiple and diverse perspectives, skills, and experiences inherent in community-academic partnerships make them uniquely positioned to educate policy makers and advocate for health-promoting public policies and health equity. 3,4 For example, academic partners can contribute by applying their quantitative and qualitative skills to evaluate proposed legislation or to assess the cost and effectiveness of policies and programs. Community partners, as constituents to a local representative, can influence the policy-making process significantly by, for example, sharing stories about the practical implications of a proposed policy. Together, researchers and community members can NIH Public Access Although existing examples of policymaking within the context of CBPR offer insights into various stages of policy development, 2-7 few emphasize the development and use of practical tools to communicate research findings to policy makers. Accordingly, this article has two main aims. First, this article describes a CBPR process for writing a one-page summary, or "one-pager," of research findings and their policy implications. A one-pager is commonly used as a communication tool in policy advocacy. [8][9][10][11] In contrast with a policy brief, which is typically longer (two to eight pages), one-pagers include only the most pertinent information and can be an effective way to succinctly summarize major points and guide discussions with policy makers. Second, this article describes a CBPR process for using a one-pager to educate policy makers and advocate for specific requests. To be most useful, this article includes a template for a sample one-pager with key headings and questions to guide community-academi...

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