The role of community resource assessments in the development of 15 adolescent health community-researcher partnerships.

Background: Connect to Protect (C2P): Partnerships for Youth Prevention Interventions is an initiative that alters the community's structural elements to reduce youth HIV rates.
Objectives: This study details a community resource assessment and describes how resources were evaluated in the context of local needs.
Methods: Fifteen sites developed a community resource list, conducted a brief survey, created a youth service directory, and mapped where disease prevalence and community resources intersected. Sites also completed a survey to review and verify local site findings.
Results: On average, sites identified 267 potential community resources. Sites narrowed their resource list to conduct a brief survey with 1,162 agencies; the site average was 78. Final products of this process included maps comparing resources with risk data.
Conclusions: The evaluation of local resources is an important initial step in partnership development and is essential for the success of health promotion and disease prevention interventions that target adolescents.