Understanding Community-Academic Partnerships

Module 1

TopicsCommunityCommunity-Engaged ResearchCommunity-Based Participatory ResearchRelevance to PEER

Understanding Community-Academic Partnerships

Why is this important?

How is it relevant to me and my organization?

CommunityA group of people...

Linked by social ties

Sharing common perspectives or interests

Who may or may not share a geographic location

Duke Center for Community Researchhttp://www.dtmi.duke.edu/dccr/community-linked-research/

Community Members share a Common Characteristic or Goal

Examples:Common culture or ethnic heritageWhere they liveSimilar ageSpeak the same languageReligion

Communities are not homogeneous and seldom speak with one voice

Duke Center for Community Researchhttp://www.dtmi.duke.edu/dccr/community-linked-research/

Composition of Communities in Community Engaged Research

A community is typically comprised of: community leaders community organizations and agencies community members

*These groups are outside of academia

These groups represent different aspects of a community and are likely to have different

perspectivesDuke Center for Community Researchhttp://www.dtmi.duke.edu/dccr/community-linked-research/

Community-Engaged ResearchBased on the Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention (CDC) working definition of community-engaged research:

“ the process of working collaboratively with and through groups of people affiliated by geographic proximity, special interest, or similar situations to address issues affecting the wellbeing of those people.”

HistoryAction Research: process of communities

identifying their problems, planning, taking action, and then evaluating the results (Lewin, 1940’s)

Empowerment Education: emphasizes the equality of teachers and learners and the co-learning process (learning from each other) (Freire, 1970’s)Incorporates principles of social justice and

empowerment for marginalized communitiesDuke Center for Community Researchhttp://www.dtmi.duke.edu/dccr/community-linked-research/

Community-Engaged ResearchA framework or approach for conducting

research, rather than a research methodMay be used with both qualitative and

quantitative methodsRecognizes and builds on community

strengthsCharacterized by principles that guide the

researchRequires partnership development

Duke Center for Community Researchhttp://www.dtmi.duke.edu/dccr/community-linked-research/

What do community organizations bring to community-engaged research?

What do PEER fellows and their agencies bring that complements the faculty knowledge?

What Community Organizations bring to Community-Engaged Research

Community-based organizations have critical, useful and intimate understandings of the concerns, values, assets and activities in their communities.

When CBOs are engaged as partners in research, they bring these perspectives to help shape and refine study questions, implementation strategies, and data collection plans.

CBOs play an important role identifying how the study results may be applied to practice, and how the results can be used to shape future research directions. www.ctsi.ucsf.edu/community

What Academics bring to Community-Engaged Research

What do the academics bring to the table?

What’s in a name?community-engaged research*community-based participatory research

(CBPR)*community-based research community-partnered participatory researchaction researchparticipatory researchmutual inquiry community-academic collaborative research

Spectrum of Community-Engaged Research

More Intensive: Collaborating fully in all aspects of research, including defining study questions, writing the proposal, implementing the research project, analyzing the results and disseminating the findings (CBPR)

Moderately Intensive: Assisting with researcher-designed study; participant recruitment, data collection, providing feedback on aspects of study design & findings

Less Intensive: Assisting in discrete steps of a researcher-designed study, such as participant recruitment

www.ctsi.ucsf.edu/community

Community-Engaged ResearchMore Intensive (CBPR): HIV prevention researchers collaborated with

a group of sex workers in South Africa to co-develop an intervention these women could realistically use to protect themselves from contracting HIV. The sex workers collaborated with researchers to develop and implement a peer education program which provided information on protection methods they could use without losing customers and earnings.

Moderately Intensive: Beginning in the late 1980s at the Hispanic Health Council in Connecticut, anthropologists obtained community input in developing programs and designing services for injection drug users, pregnant women, and teens in the local Spanish speaking community.

Less Intensive: A needle exchange program was developed by academic investigators in New York City. Community members were hired to recruit participants into the program.

Singer M. 1993Campbell C. 2001Israel BA, et al 1998Wallerstein N, Duran B. 2003

Duke Center for Community Researchhttp://www.dtmi.duke.edu/dccr/community-linked-research/

What is Community-Based Participatory Research (CPBR)?

“CBPR is a collaborative approach to research that equitably involves all partners in the research process and recognizes the unique strengths that each brings. CBPR begins with a research topic of importance to the community with the aim of combining knowledge and action for social change to improve community health and eliminate health disparities.”

Full collaboration in all aspects of research, including defining study questions, writing the proposal, implementing the research project, analyzing the results and disseminating the findings

W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Community Health Scholar’s Program (2001)

CBPR emphasizeso Mutual respecto Co-learningo Individual and community capacity buildingo Balance between research and action

Principles of CBPRBuilds on community strengths and resources Facilitates collaborative, equitable partnership in all

research phases and involves an empowering and power-sharing process

Principles of CBPREmphasizes public health problems of local relevance

and acknowledges multiple determinants of health and disease

Disseminates findings and knowledge to all partners

What CBPR is not• Studies where participants merely “come from the

community”• Unengaged venue for recruiting subjects for clinical

trials

Benefits of CBPREnhances relevance of research questions to the

communitiesEnhances reliability and validity of measurement

instrumentsImproves response ratesEnhances recruitment and retentionStrengthens interventions by incorporating cultural

beliefs into scientifically valid approaches

Benefits of CBPR

Increases accurate and culturally sensitive interpretation of findings

Facilitates effective dissemination of findings to impact public health and policy

Increases translation of evidence-based research into sustainable community change

Provides resources and benefits to communitiesJoins partners with diverse expertiseIncreases research trust

Why does PEER use the CBPR framework?

CBPR and PEERPEER…Seeks to develop the capacity of your organization

and the capacity of academics to fully collaborate in community-engaged research

Offers an opportunity for academics and community-based organizations to engage together in a guided, facilitated, systematic program

Uses an applied learning approachCapacity of your organization will be increased

through your dissemination of CBPR, research methods, research study progress/findings, …

Thank You

VideosWatch two videos of CBPR one from a

researcherperspective and one from the community

perspective

http://vimeo.com/35427319http://videos.med.wisc.edu/videos/6668

What was the most important message for you from each video?

What was the most surprising thing you learned from each video?

Did the videos bring up important topics or issues (for fellows, organizations, or faculty partners) that you might encounter during PEER?