Strengthening Community Capacity for Environmental Health Promotion through Photovoice

The study aims were to: (1) Identify health promoters'; perceptions of housing issues faced by farmworker families in an agricultural community, and (2) Strengthen community capacity to promote healthy and affordable housing.

Photovoice was used to identify participants'; perceptions about farmworker housing. Thematic analysis was used to analyze participant interviews. Freudenberg's "Community Capacity for Environmental Health Promotion" framework was used to organize activities that contributed to strengthening community capacity. Purposive sampling was used to recruit six bilingual health promoters into the study.

A demographic questionnaire was administered to characterize participants. An interview guide was used to inquire about housing conditions and the research process. A tracking tool was used to document capacity-building activities 2 years post data collection.

Housing issues faced by farmworker families included housing availability, poor conditions, and invisibility. All dimensions of community capacity were represented. Most occurred on an individual level.

Health promoters identified housing issues and built community capacity to support farmworker housing. Nurses can support housing initiatives by assessing housing status, using data to support healthy housing, supporting health promoter programs in new service delivery models, and leading coalitions to address housing as a social determinant of health.