53 Community Engaged Research for Environmental Sustainability and Community Resilience

We welcome trans-disciplinary submissions with a strong focus on community engagement in research development or implementation, especially research addressing issues of sustainability in water, air quality, land use, energy, climate change, and environmental justice.

Sunday, 19 October 2025
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
HBGCC, 302B

Community Resilience and “Funds of Knowledge”: Participatory Science at the Intersection of Rurality, Environmental Health, and Culture

Paper number: 53-24
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 5:03 PM – 5:23 PM

Authors

Abstract

A community-based participatory research approach to environmental health research and training can authentically incorporate the diversity of community experiences and ways of knowing. Traditional research approaches can perpetuate the separation between scientists, practitioners, and members of the public by asking questions that fail to address community concerns and using methods that dismiss public participation. Based on established partnerships and trust, “STEAM in Action”, an inquiry-based educational program focused on soil/air quality and social determinants of health, was co-created with six rural,environmental justice communities that neighbor resource extraction in Arizona,USA. Together, we are working to mobilize knowledge and resources inherent in the community. Using frameworks of environmental health literacy (EHL), an ecological model of health, and “funds of knowledge”, we facilitated four youth/adult community-based environmental health trainings and currently support community adult/youth advisory boards, both designed to increase EHL, self-efficacy, communication, critical thinking, and leadership skills. Evidence suggests that “STEAM in Action” is successfully training the next generation of environmental health and justice leaders, and the co-production of environmental monitoring information and data report-back materials is supporting environmental health research to action. In summary, this talk will discuss the creation of participatory science programs that engages all ages and is providing the tools, skills and support to document, reflect upon, and communicate issues of concern (through youth/adult advisory boards and Photovoice); collect environmental samples to address environmental quality issues (through co-created citizen/community science); and make sense of data so that their results can inform actions at the local, regional, and even national level (through data visualization and environmental communication).

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-412730

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