Academic partnerships and key leaders emerging from communities in the lower Mississippi Delta (LMD): a...

Collaboratively, the nutritional health problems of the Lower Mississippi Delta (LMD) region were examined and opportunities identified for conducting research interventions. To combat the nutritional health problems in the LMD, community residents yielded to a more comprehensive and participatory approach known as community-based participatory research (CBPR). Community residents partnered with academic researchers and other organizational entities to improve the overall quality of diet and health in their respective communities using CBPR. The collaborative work in the LMD focused on interventions conducted in each of three specific communities across three states: Marvell, Arkansas (Marvell NIRI), and its surrounding public school district; Franklin Parish in Louisiana (Franklin NIRI); and the city of Hollandale, Mississippi (Hollandale NIRI). This paper examined some of the research interventions conducted in Franklin, Hollandale, and Marvell NIRI respectively, how leadership emerged from each of these communities, and lessons learned as a result of the CBPR model.