Objective: The under-utilisation of mental health services by populations because of inadequate mental health education by community leaders and the public is of concern. The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of brief 1-day workshops in educating the public about mental health. Design: Quantitative pre-post evaluation.…

Integrated early childhood development (ECD) programs boost child health and developmental outcomes. However, the factors contributing to the successful implementation of such programs in informal urban settlements are not well researched. We conducted 14 focus group discussions and 13 key informant interviews with 125 caregivers of children under…

Research evidence indicates the ability of dance to improve physical and mental health and wellbeing through its unique combination of creative expression, movement and social connections. This article explores the wellbeing of independent dance artists/practitioners delivering initiatives for the UK's social prescribing scheme. The article…

We argue for the need for and provide an example of a new form of community-based engineering education in Rwanda. We draw on Bourdieu's theories of field and habitus to frame the arguments for an alternative to the current dominant engineering education model. The proposed community engineering education programme has three key facets including…

The concept of power is a complex and often intangible aspect of the evaluation process that is frequently a focal topic among the conceptual evaluation literature concerning collaborative or culturally responsive evaluation (CRE) contexts. Unfortunately, there remains a significant theory to practice gap as power is often rarely addressed or…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate concerning community participation in school-based health education and health promotion, with regard to food and nutrition. Design/methodology/approach: Based on empirical data generated over the course of one year of fieldwork in three rural communities and schools in Ecuador, the…

Purpose: Primary-care referral to community-based exercise specialists (exercise referral) is common in the UK despite limited evidence of effectiveness. A recent pragmatic randomised trial of the Welsh National Exercise Referral Scheme (NERS), demonstrated promising impacts upon physical activity and mental health. This paper presents a…

This paper describes pedagogy in a series of "diabetes literacy" programs involving culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. The programs were jointly delivered in local community sites, including neighbourhood centres and public housing halls, by qualified nutritionists from a public health service and adult literacy…

In this article we examine how cultural and community factors interact with individual level factors to predict school participation. Participants were 497 Atlantic Canadian youth purposefully selected because of their concurrent use of more than one government service or community program at the time they were interviewed. Results revealed that…

Globally mosquito-borne lymphatic filariasis (LF) is targeted for elimination by 2020. Towards this goal, the scope of community-based vector control as a supplementary strategy to mass drug administration (MDA) was assessed through an intensive education campaign and evaluated using pre- and post-educational surveys in an intervention and…

Health education for socially marginalized populations challenges the efficacy of existing strategies and methods, and the pertinence of the educational and philosophical principles that underpin them. The Brazilian Community Health Agents Initiative (CHAI) hires residents of deprived marginalized communities to undertake health promotion and…

In critical and feminist educational circles there has been a lively debate between those who call for more emphasis on contextualisation and concrete practices and those who defend a more generalised view of critical pedagogy. The unceasing march of corporate globalisation and neoliberalism make it absolutely urgent that educators and organisers…

Each night, around 20,000 people--both adults and children--make the streets of Dhaka (the capital city of Bangladesh) their home. Living amongst the noise, rubbish, and traffic, thousands of families walk down the streets of Dhaka, looking for a safe place to rest for just a few hours each night. Trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty, the…

This article reviews research into the genesis and spread of both neighbourhood houses and learning centres in Victoria and community-based men's sheds in Australia to identify some similarities and differences. Our article asks questions about the gendered communities of practice that underpin houses for women on the one hand, and sheds for men…

In 1997, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio established the Regional Academic Health Center (RAHC) for the Lower Rio Grande Valley in south Texas. Through medical education programs, research facilities, and partnerships with health-care providers, the RAHC aims to improve the health status and access to health services…