Voices of Community Partners: Perspectives Gained from Conversations of Community-Based Participatory Research Experiences

Abstract

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) has been documented as an effective approach to research with underserved communities, particularly with racial and ethnic minority groups. However, much of the literature promoting the use of CBPR with underserved communities is written from the perspective of the researchers and not from the perspective of the community partner. The purpose of this article is to capture lessons learned from the community partners’ insight gained through their experiences with CBPR. A multi-investigator consensus method was used to qualitatively code the transcripts of a CBPR story-telling video series. Seven major themes were identified: (1) expectations for engaging in research, (2) cultural humility, (3) respecting the partnership, (4) open communication, (5) genuine commitment, (6) valuing strengths and recognizing capacities, and (7) collaborating to yield meaningful results. The themes drawn from the community partner’s voice align with the tenets of CBPR advanced in the academic literature. More opportunities to include the community voice when promoting CBPR should be undertaken to help introduce the concepts to potential community partners who may be research cautious.

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“…There are several rationales supporting the method of community-based research: it connects partners with diverse skills and expertise to address a complex problem; it has the potential to bridge the partners included and it enables to create a theory that is grounded in social experience and leads to more effective practices [ 19 ]. As trust, appreciation of cultural differences, respect, open communication, and research commitment were recently identified as cornerstones of community-based participatory research [ 20 ], focus was put on these elements in order to facilitate a successful interplay of science and practice. This co-creation approach allows an in-depth exploration of complex social issues or underlying patterns of behaviour in a specific setting, also revealing the meaning of these patterns for stakeholders in a particular context.…”

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