A case study in developing a health impact assessment through the eyes of a community

Participatory research methods are often used to explore how grassroots groups and local communities’ knowledge from their lived experiences can influence policies they are impacted by. This paper is a case study in the co-production of a new health impact assessment (HIA) between a non-profit and grassroots campaign group. The purpose was to identify how the HIA could be improved by reflecting on a community’s lived experiences from a recent urban development project. We centred on building a new HIA model through the community group’s interpretation of the World Health Organization’s four interlinking values of the HIA. Over six months, a programme of activities consisting of virtual workshops on specific topics and personal research queries took place. The project’s results included a new HIA methodology focused on culturally competent baselining, the recognition of existing environmental and psychosocial stressors, and centring lived experience knowledge in how proposed interventions interact with other determinants of health. A key learning from our new HIA methodology reflected that how a process is designed is as important as what it produces. Recommendations centre on the need for further research into susceptibility in assessment frameworks and greater resourcing of infrastructure for community knowledge development and civic engagement.