Supporting New Community-Based Participatory Research Partnerships

Abstract

Marginalized communities have a documented distrust of research grounded in negative portrayals in the academic literature. Yet, trusted partnerships, the foundation for Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR), require time to build the capacity for joint decision-making, equitable involvement of academically trained and community investigators, and co-learning. Trust can be difficult to develop within the short time between a funding opportunity announcement and application submission. Resources to support community- and academic-based investigators’ time to discuss contexts, concerns, integration of expertise and locally acceptable research designs and data collection are limited. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded Center for American Indian Resilience and the Southwest Health Equity Research Collaborative have implemented an internal funding mechanism to support community and academic-based investigators’ travel cost and time to discuss complementary areas of interest and skills and to decide if moving forward with a partnership and a collaborative grant proposal would be beneficial to the community. The rationale and administration of this Community-Campus Partnership Support (CCPS) Program are described and four examples of supported efforts are provided. Centers and training programs frequently fund pilot grants to support junior investigators and/or exploratory research. This CCPS mechanism should be considered as precursor to pilot work, to stimulate partnership building without the pressure of an approaching grant application deadline.

Social Relations, Community Engagement and Potentials: A Qualitative Study Exploring Resident Engagement in a Community-Based Health Promotion Intervention in a Deprived Social Housing Area

“…Our own study indicates a need for approaches based on the contextual circumstances found in this study in the future recruitment and delivery of health promotion interventions in order to ensure sustainability of these interventions in the housing area we studied. A greater involvement of existing infrastructure through historically collaborative partnerships or an influential community partner, such as locally driven associations by residents or the board of residents, holds a potential in terms of securing post-intervention sustainably of health promotion interventions [22,24]. An influential community partner, as previously mentioned, has many years of experience with designing and implementing community-based interventions in the deprived social housing area, and holds valuable insight about the needs and preferences of residents that can be an advantage for the development and sustainability of community-based health promotion interventions.…”

“…Deprived population groups may be disempowered and unable to engage in traditional health promotion interventions, since these encourage individuals to exert control over their own health, often through a focus on advancing knowledge of risk factors [19,20]. Nevertheless, studies concerning recruitment approaches attempting to reach deprived population groups have found that working with residents of deprived social housing areas can enhance the acceptance of and engagement in health promotion interventions [3,9,15,[21][22][23]. This entails that residents, in collaboration with formal and informal organizations in the deprived social housing areas, are involved in the design and implementation of the health promotion intervention [3,16,[22][23][24].…”

“…Nevertheless, studies concerning recruitment approaches attempting to reach deprived population groups have found that working with residents of deprived social housing areas can enhance the acceptance of and engagement in health promotion interventions [3,9,15,[21][22][23]. This entails that residents, in collaboration with formal and informal organizations in the deprived social housing areas, are involved in the design and implementation of the health promotion intervention [3,16,[22][23][24]. However, regarding residents of deprived social housing areas specifically, little is known about the experiences of engagement in community-based health promotion interventions that are based on participatory approaches.…”

Guidance for Genuine Collaboration: Insights from Academic, Tribal, and Community Partner Interviews on a New Research Partnership

“…A review of health-related participatory research with Native communities found that meaningful relationship building was challenged by time and funding allotted in grants [31]. The National Institutes of Health-funded Center for American Indian Resilience and the Southwest Health Equity Research Collaborative has a unique funding mechanism to financially support relationship building for both academic and community partners [32]. This mechanism allows time for trust building and making sound decisions about whether or not to move forward with the collaboration, for example to write a grant proposal together [32].…”

“…Collaboration with tribes specifically is strengthened by respecting cultural and traditional knowledge and indigenous methodologies [7]. The Center for American Indian Resilience and the Southwest Health Equity Research Collaborative funding mechanism mentioned above resulted in partners discussing innovative strategies together [32]. This type of discussion implies that partner expertise is valued and respected, as opinions on new approaches are sought.…”