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Introduction
Participatory processes among professionals and stakeholders can contribute to the quality and sustainability of health promotion (HP) interventions (1–3). Case studies have been published in recent years describing the added value of these processes to academia, service providers, and the community. However, very few reports describe these processes systematically and in detail to enable evaluation of their effectiveness (4).
The initiators of the Jerusalem Community–Academic Partnership are members of a School of Public Health with a long-standing tradition of multi-disciplinary teamwork involving the community. The School’s founders developed the community-oriented primary care (COPC) (5) model in the 1940s in South Africa (6,7), bringing it to Jerusalem in 1959 (8). They pioneered the concept of combining the social determinants of health with a ‘community diagnosis,’ which assesses the health needs of a defined population, as well as involving the community in that process. This concept was incorporated into training for students.
Several terms are used to describe community-partnered research, like CBPR (community-based participatory research) or action research. The most recent one is community–academic partnership (CAP) (4). Drahota et al. (1) suggest using the term CAP to describe initiatives characterized by equitable control by the relevant community and academic researchers, and shared goals that are relevant to that specific community. However, in their systematic review, most of the CAP case studies did not report partner characteristics (1).
Pellecchia et al. (4) suggested several implementation strategies that are relevant for CAP, including: ‘(a) building a coalition, (b) conducting local consensus discussions, (c) identifying barriers and facilitators to implementation, (d) facilitating interactive problem-solving, (e) using an advisory board or workgroup, (f) tailoring strategies, (g) promoting adaptability, and (h) auditing and providing feedback.’ All of these strategies are specifying the ‘group dynamic/equitable partnership’ dimension of the CBPR model, described by Wallerstein et al. (9).
The Jerusalem CAP (J-CAP) for promoting healthy nutrition and physical activity was established in 2017. It followed a needs assessment of Jerusalem residents, which indicated that only 12% performed the recommended amounts of physical activity, and only 17.6% consumed five fruits and vegetables daily (10). J-CAP established a coalition of stakeholders and incorporated the training of students pursuing master’s degrees in public health (MPH) over three academic years. The first J-CAP project...