A Practical Guide to Putting Communities in the Driver's Seat

by NHHRI CEO Ken Barela 

Every institution I've walked into in the last decade has equity on its strategic plan. Many are still designing solutions in boardrooms, then wonder why communities aren't buying in.

Hassan Saleheen and I wrote  The Community Power Model Guidebook: A Pathway to Equity for researchers, practitioners, community workers, and policymakers who are doing the work and need a more disciplined way to operate. The Community Power Model is that structure. Seven tenets, grounded in decades of scholarship on participatory research, empowerment theory, and social justice practice, are organized into something you can actually bring into a room.

The tenets aren't abstract. The book addresses root causes, centers those most affected, and builds participatory decision-making into the process. From there, it allows the user to develop context-specific solutions and gives policymakers room to push for policy change. We advocate for working across sectors and for starting with what a community is.

For researchers, we reframe the approach to one that puts community partners first. This is what community organizations have been fighting for for years, but we make it our mantra going forward, so there is no room for ambiguity. Community knowledge generates evidence. The benefits also have to center on the community.

At NHHRI, this is how we try to operate. Community priorities shape the research agenda. Our wish is the adoption of these principles across the network. We encourage you to read the guidebook, apply its tenets in your work, and join us in building more equitable systems with and for communities. It's a set of guidelines born out of practice and the work we've already done with communities in Connecticut.

Systems shaped by exclusion require more than adjusted programming. They require different decision-making. This guidebook is a methodical, step-by-step decision-making guide that will benefit the communities with the most at stake.

Ken Barela has more than. 35 years of experience in the non-profit sector. He has worked in various capacities as an executive for national and regional healthcare and human service organizations. 

He has experience evaluating not only prospects but entire communities to determine their primary interests and motivations, and a demonstrable track record of applying those interests to successful community projects.