A Roadmap for Sustainable Community-Engaged Partnerships in Athletic Training and Using a Traveling Athletic Training Camp as an Implementation Strategy

Abstract

Improving access to athletic trainers and increasing diversity in the profession have been major goals of the Strategic Alliance, with a particular interest in the secondary school setting. Within many marginalized communities, individuals are often faced with a lack of resources, high rates of poverty, and limited access to health care. This social and economic climate often extends to inequitable athletic training services and patterns of disparate health. Widely used and recognized strategies to cultivate diversity and address health inequities include community-engaged partnerships; however, these approaches are not well implemented across the athletic training discipline. Successful community-engaged partnerships link communities and universities, and they are rooted in intentionality to address intermediate and long-term health equity outcomes. Athletic training professionals and scholars frequently encounter gaps in resources and process-oriented methods to participate in community-engaged efforts that could include a roadmap or pathway to follow. To bridge this gap, our aims were 2-fold: (1) to disseminate a roadmap for building sustainable community-engaged partnerships in athletic training with the intent of promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice across athletic training education, research, and professional service and (2) to demonstrate how the roadmap can be implemented using a community-based athletic training education camp as an example. Implementation of the athletic training camp using the roadmap took place at secondary schools where community-engaged partnerships have been established throughout a geographic region known as the Alabama Black Belt, a region burdened with poor health outcomes, limited athletic trainer presence, and lower quality of life, exacerbated by racial and socioeconomic inequalities. Implementing this roadmap as a strategy to build sustainable community-engaged partnerships offers an innovative, interactive, and effective approach to addressing community needs by exposing secondary school students to the athletic training profession, advancing equitable athletic training research practices, and upholding and promoting the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice in athletic training education.