Building Community Capacity: Sustaining the Effects of Multiple, Two-Year Community-based Participatory Research Projects

Abstract

Background The time-limited nature of health and public health research fellowships poses a challenge to trainees’ and community partners’ efforts to sustain effective, collaborative, community-based participatory research (CBPR) relationships. Objectives This paper presents CBPR case studies of partnerships between health services research trainees and community organization leaders in a medium-sized city to describe how participation in the partnership altered community partners’ understanding and willingness to conduct research and to engage with research-derived data. Methods Trainees and faculty used participatory methods with community leaders to identify research questions, and conduct and disseminate research. Throughout the process, trainees and faculty included research capacity building of community partners as a targeted outcome. Community partners were asked to reflect retrospectively on community research capacity building in the context of CBPR projects. Reflections were discussed and categorized by the authorship team, who grouped observations into topics that may serve as a foundation for development of future prospective analyses. Results Important ideas shared include that trainee participation in CBPR may have an enduring impact on the community by increasing the capacity of community partners and agencies to engage in research beyond that which they are conducting with the current trainee. Conclusion We posit that CBPR with research trainees may have an additive effect on community research capacity when it is conducted in collaboration with community leaders and focuses on a single region. More research is needed to characterize this potential outcome.

Using community-based participatory research and organizational diagnosis to characterize relationships between community leaders and academic researchers

“…In recognition that the operationalization of the community-academic relationship is key to the success of CEnR, the literature describes challenges and best practices for forming CEnR partnerships ( Hicks et al, 2012 , Freudenberg, 2001 , Goldberg-Freeman et al, 2007 , Kennedy et al, 2009 , Lantz et al, 2001 , Metzler et al, 2003 , Sullivan et al, 2001 , Ndulue et al, 2012 , Norris et al, 2007 , Rosenthal et al, 2014 , Santilli et al, 2011 ). Challenges include communication, sustaining projects, trust, and building and maintaining relationship in context of historical tensions ( Freudenberg, 2001 , Goldberg-Freeman et al, 2007 , Kennedy et al, 2009 , Lantz et al, 2001 , Metzler et al, 2003 , Sullivan et al, 2001 , Tandon, 2007 ).…”

Utilizing Photovoice to Support Indigenous Accounts of Environmental Change and Injustice

“…The photographs are used alongside interviews, not only to elicit information about a particular phenomenon but also to evoke different types of information (Harper 2002). For instance, Rosenthal et al (2014), used photo-elicitation to understand perceptions of violence from a youth perspective through case studies of collaborations among health services research trainees and community organization leaders. In their study, youth participants took photographs to document their experiences with violence in their community; they then discussed common themes in focus groups with community health providers.…”

Un marco ético amplio para la investigación científica en seres humanos: más allá de los códigos y las declaraciones. La propuesta de Ezekiel. J. Emanuel

“…Teniendo en cuenta que la investigación científica tiene como propósito fundamental servir a la sociedad, la colaboración entre investigadores y comunidad construyen el principio de la investigación colaborativa, el cual supone que la comunidad en donde se lleva a cabo la investigación debe favorecer y participar en el esfuerzo investigativo, lo que incluye, además, definir si la comunidad recibirá beneficios como resultado de la investigación y garantizar que la comunidad no será explotada durante el proceso, es decir que la investigación colaborativa deja de lado a una comunidad pasiva, para invitarla a ser protagonista y dar paso a las personas para que contribuyan en el proceso de desarrollo científico, a fin de que sean intérpretes del mismo y permanezcan activas en la implementación de la investigación (19). Además, la investigación colaborativa indica a la comunidad, si el esfuerzo científico ayudará a resolver sus problemas y a definir si es aceptable desarrollar la investigación en su propio entorno.…”