Abstract
In 2002 the Community Outreach & Engagement Core (COEC) program of the Sealy Center for Environmental Health & Medicine and the NIEHS-funded Center in Environmental Toxicology (CET) at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston TX (UTMB) implemented a unique outreach and education methodology based on the pedagogical principles of Paulo Freire and Augusto Boal’s community-oriented applied theatre system, the Theatre of the Oppressed (TO). This project – dubbed Community Environmental Forum Theatre – grew out of the UTMB COEC’s adoption of a Community Based Participatory (CBPR) approach to environmental public health research, with a complementary emphasis on enhancing Environmental Health Literacy (EHL) within project partner communities. The dialogic engagement embodied in Freire’s “democratizing pedagogy” and its mirror image in Boal’s inclusive and multi-perspectival body of dramatic technique have proven effective in promoting EHL via sustainable engagement with community partners in research.
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Appendix 1: TO-Based Projects
Appendix 1: TO-Based Projects
Exposure Concerns and TO Process Outcomes in an environmental public health context
Name of Event | Location | Date(s) | Exposure Concern | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2nd Ward/East Side Project with Nuestra Palabra | Houston TX | 2002 | Water quality | Advocacy for bayou clean up |
Mothers for Clean Air/5th Ward Branch (Bruce Elementary School) | Houston TX | 2004 | Air, Soil, Water quality; proximity to Superfund site; fence-line safety issues | Clarity on exposures to air pollution, metals |
Corpus Christi Citizens for Environmental Justice | Corpus Christi TX | 2004 | Air quality: fence-line safety issues | Cancer, asthma, and exposure pathways |
Community In-Power & Development Association | Port Arthur TX | 2004 | Air quality: fence-line safety issues | Clarify exposure pathways, healthy homes |
Mothers for Clean Air Leadership Development Project, Sims Bayou Nature Center | Houston TX | 2004–2006 | Air, Soil, Water quality | Techniques for peer-peer risk communication |
Seabrook/Shore Acres: Clean Air Clearlake | Clear Lake X | 2005 | Air quality | Clarify exposure pathways, cancer risk |
Health Care Access Project (St. Vincent’s House/IMH | Anchorage Galveston TX | 2005 | Exposures in homeless population, health care access | Enhanced advocacy for access |
AK Environmental Forum Charlton Park | Anchorage AK | 2007 | Water, Soil quality (metals) | Cancers in Native Alaskans |
“Behind the Fence”: Toxic Waste & Lupus Coalition | Buffalo NY | 2007–2008 | Air, Soil, Water quality: metals, PCBs | Lupus clusters, residential lead levels |
Charlton Park: Mothers for Clean Air | Houston TX | 2007 | Air quality (diesel fumes) | Asthma, Enhanced advocacy |
Moving Forward: Ports/Goods Movement Conference | Carson City CA | 2009–2010 | Air quality: Multi point source | Exposure pathways; proximity to roads, respiratory health |
Houston Inter-Faith Workers Justice Center | Houston TX | 2010 | Air quality: fumes from barges & welding | Correct uses of safety gear, clarification of workers rights |
International Peoples Health University/Rebel Diaz Collective | Bronx, New York City | 2011 | Air quality | Identifying point sources/exposure pathways |
Community/Campus Partnerships for Health Conference | Houston TX | 2012 | Health care access for homeless & undocumented | Clarify avenues of access/advocacy for policy |
Southwest Workers Union | San Antonio, TX | 2013 | Air, Water quality | Clarity on pollution sources from fracking |
Global Health Education/Health Literacy Conference | Galveston TX | 2014–2017 | Vector -borne tropical diseases: dengue, chikungunya | International transmission process |
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Sullivan, J. (2019). Using Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed in a Community-Based Participatory Research Approach to Environmental Health Literacy. In: Finn, S., O'Fallon, L. (eds) Environmental Health Literacy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94108-0_11
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