The Tulane Prevention Research Center (PRC) has launched a new resource for New Orleans-area neighborhood associations and community-based organizations. This toolkit, titled Capacity Building for Health: A Toolkit for New Orleans’ Community Organizations, is free and available for download on the center’s website.

“This toolkit provides step-by-step guidance to effectively run a nonprofit organization, enabling community organizations to focus on achieving short- and long-term goals, and ultimately contributing to stronger and healthier communities,” said Dr. Carolyn Johnson, Tulane PRC director.

The Tulane PRC anticipates that neighborhood associations and other community-based organizations will use this toolkit as needed to improve their organizations’ capacities to address various issues of need, including health. The idea for the toolkit was developed from the PRC’s Neighborhood Ambassador Program and its work with the Fit NOLA Parks and Prescription Program.

“We work with neighborhood associations and organizations on a wide range of activities,” says Ms. Catherine Haywood, Tulane PRC community engagement manager. “That includes setting up walking groups, health fairs, cooking demonstrations, resources for reducing blight and improving neighborhood safety, exercise classes, and community and container gardening.”

The PRC launched the Neighborhood Ambassador Program in early 2011 to connect neighborhood groups to health-related resources and programs. Support from the PRC, as part of the Neighborhood Ambassador Program, is tailored to meet the self-identified needs of the participating neighborhood organizations to initiate and maintain future health-related activities.

The toolkit was also made possible thanks to work from Ms. Kelly Bond, a graduate student at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.