Engaging in Health Activism through Neighbor-to-Neighbor Communication

Given the importance of local organizing to environmental health advocacy and activism, we need more understanding of how neighbors communicate about health risks. Individual residents in a neighborhood can be agents of social change, communicating about common health concerns and ways to cope with them, potentially leading to health activism. In this study, we used a grounded theory approach to analyze Pennsylvania residents’ (N = 407) responses to open-ended questions that asked their thoughts on engaging in conversations with neighbors about the risk of lead exposure. Our findings describe (a) what respondents would want to share with neighbors about health risks and how they would communicate with their neighbors, (b) what actions they would like to promote to neighbors, and (c) what additional factors would facilitate conversations with neighbors. Based on the critical examination of the findings, we discuss communication strategies that can motivate health activism to bring about social structural changes.