Speaker
Description
Social and health indicators suggest that individuals experiencing marginalization within more impoverished urban neighbourhoods have disproportionate levels of daily and chronic stress, which can lead to socio-spatial disparities in chronic illness. Increasingly, research has recognized the place-based nature of stress and (community) resilience. Using an action-oriented and mixed methods approach, the SCERN project engages residents of a neighbourhood in Hamilton, Ontario (Canada) in a resilience planning intervention using a participatory mapping to identify local place-based stressors and resources. Phase 1 of the project is focused on conducting an environmental scan and creating a community advisory board to foster relationships with local residents and other actors to improve understanding of the neighbourhood context. Phase 2 will involve a digital participatory mapping study for a group of local residents to find and characterize local places that either provide support or cause stress. In Phase 3, facilitated community meetings build on the participatory mapping findings by discussing and identifying salient adaptive strategies and interventions. In this way, the project combines residents’ local expertise with evidence-based geographical techniques to identify place-based contributors to resilience disparities and to build community-based strategies for closing neighbourhood health and resilience gaps.
Keywords: neighborhoods; chronic stress; participatory mapping; community engagement; urban health
