Measurement of capacity building as an approach for community participation. Experience from a prevention and health promotion programme in Hamburg

Background. Community participation is a key domain of capacity building and is also an essential element of participatory quality development. Both concepts are largely based on the knowledge of the participants and help to use this knowledge in health promotion. Aims. In a long-term prevention programme for children and their parents in the Hamburgian neighbourhood "Lenzsiedlung" a new evaluation tool for measuring capacity building was developed and applied. Through the involvement of both professional actors and residents in the evaluation, our knowledge on the state of health promotion in the neighbourhood was to be enlarged and further developed. Results. Overall, the surveys of professional actors revealed positive results in capacity building over time, although there might be the risk of subjective bias. The inclusion of residents in the evaluation has to be assessed differently and shows limits of community participation in research. A positive result is the reception and further processing of the participative evaluation by the Round Table "Lenz Health".