Empowering communities with health promotion labs: result from a CBPR programme in Malmö, Sweden.

Health promotion is thus not only a participatory practice, but a practice forempowerment and social justice. The study describes findings from a community-basedparticipatory and challenge-driven research program. that aimed to improve health through healthpromotion platform in an ethnically diverse low-income neighbourhood of Malmö, Sweden. Localresidents together with lay health promoters living in the area were actively involved in theplanning phase and decided on the structure and content of the program. Academic, public sectorand commercial actors were involved, as well as NGOs and residents. Empowerment was usedas a lens to analyse focus group interviews with participants (n=322) in six co-creative healthpromotinglabs on three occasions in the period 2017-2019. The CBP R interview guide focusedon the dimensions of participation, collaboration and experience of the activities. The CBP Rapproach driven by community member contributed to empowerment processes within the healthpromotion labs: Health promotors building trust in social places for integration, Participantsmotivate each other by social support and Participants acting for community health in widercircle. CBP R Health promotion program should be followed up longitudielly with communityparticipants to be able to see the processes of change and empowerment on the community level.