Building community for health: lessons from a seven-year-old neighborhood/university partnership

This article presents two case studies highlighting the role of community conflict in the process of community empowerment. A graduate program for community health nurses (CHNs) in a large Midwestern city formed a partnership with a diverse, integrated neighborhood for the dual purposes of enhancing the community's capacity to improve its own health and teaching CHNs community organizing as a means to improve health. Central to the partnership are a broad definition of health, trust developed through long-term involvement, a commitment to reciprocity, social justice, and Freire's model of adult learning. Two initiatives that gave rise to major conflicts between community groups are analyzed. Conflicts, external and internal to the community, proved to be both powerful catalysts and potential barriers to the use of Freirian themes in community organization. Both university and community participants report needing better skills in the early recognition and management of conflict. We conclude that conflict management theory must be integrated with empowerment education theory, particularly when empowerment education is applied in a diverse community.