P-05 Building health together: a longstanding collaboration between the University of Michigan Public Health Action Support Team and the Caribbean nation of Grenada

Methods: Since 2013, this community-academic partnership has supported community-driven public health and social service initiativesn in Grenada. HAST engages graduate students through the Public Health in Action course and, more recently, supervised summer internships. This partnership operates through a a co-developed, project-based model in which organizations define needs and desired deliverables, and PHAST assembles graduate student teams through a Public Health in Action course and, more recently, a summer internship program. Teams work with partners using check-ins, iterative feedback, and rapid-cycle product development (e.g., policies, frameworks, tools, training materials, and evaluation tools). Project selection, timelines, and dissemination plans are agreed upon collaboratively, emphasizing practical outputs that can be implemented and adapted locally with pre-work and while on the ground for a week in Grenada..

Results: This partnership has worked with 12 organizations on more than 30 projects. Key outcomes include: (1) development and refinement of a national alcohol and drug policy framework; (2) creation and adoption of volunteer management policies and tools that strengthened recruitment, onboarding, and retention; (3) improved capacity to support homes through the development and dissemination of an infectious disease protocol; and (4) enhanced coordination of social services related to disability and intimate partner violence through service mapping and inter-agency collaboration resources. Several products developed in Grenada have been transformed into adaptable templates and frameworks, now being shared across the Eastern Caribbean.

Conclusion: Community-academic partnerships foster meaningful collaboration between universities and community organizations, a particularly valuable model in the Caribbean region and in social work practice, where culturally grounded approaches are essential. The activities have further evolved into frameworks now being adapted across the Eastern Caribbean.