Empowering Citizens Through the Development and Deployment of a Community-Based Environmental Health Reporting Tool

Community-based participatory research provides communities with an avenue to actively collaborate with environmental researchers. The research aims to gain insight into critical problems of concern to community members while maintaining community autonomy over the research and its outcomes. This article describes the development and implementation of an environmental health communication tool designed to meet the needs of residents of Colfax, Louisiana, a rural community with limited technological access, which is engaging in advocacy with federal and state regulatory agencies to prohibit open burning and open detonation of military and Superfund wastes at a nearby thermal treatment site. We discuss how environmental scientists: (a) designed a community reporting tool specific to community goals and needs, (b) incorporated science and health communication practices, and (c) paired the tool with community outreach activities to support community-based environmental justice efforts. The reporting tool was evaluated with regard to Universal Design for Learning criteria. The tool was found to include key principles, including multiple means of representation, multiple means of action and expression, and multiple means of engagement. Consistent with these principles, several community members expressed that the booklets provided a concise and understandable summary of the data for use in their advocacy.