scholarly journals Enhancing Capacity of Community–Academic Partnerships to Achieve Health Equity: Results From the CBPR Partnership Academy

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 552-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris M. Coombe ◽  
Amy J. Schulz ◽  
Lello Guluma ◽  
Alex J. Allen ◽  
Carol Gray ◽  
...  

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an equitable partnership approach that links academic researchers, community organizations, and public health practitioners to work together to understand and address health inequities. Although numerous educational materials on CBPR exist, few training programs develop the skills and knowledge needed to establish effective, equitable partnerships. Furthermore, there are few professional development opportunities for academic researchers, practitioners, and community members to obtain these competencies in an experiential co-learning process. In response, the Detroit Community–Academic Urban Research Center developed the CBPR Partnership Academy, an innovative, yearlong capacity-building program facilitated by experienced community and academic partners, involving an intensive short course, partnership development, grant proposal preparation and funding, mentoring, online learning forums, and networking. Three diverse cohorts (36 teams) from 18 states and 2 tribal nations have participated. We describe the rationale and components of the training program and present results from the first two cohorts. Evaluation results suggest enhanced competence and efficacy in conducting CBPR. Outcomes include partnerships established, grant proposals submitted and funded, workshops and research conducted, and findings disseminated. A community–academic partner-based, integrated, applied program can be effective for professional development and establishing innovative linkages between academics and practitioners aimed at achieving health equity.

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 781-809 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn M. Tucker ◽  
Jaime L. Williams ◽  
Julia Roncoroni ◽  
Martin Heesacker

Significant health disparities continue to plague many groups of people who have been systematically oppressed and largely unrepresented in health research. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a collaborative research approach that has been shown to be effective in addressing health disparities; a community–university partnership approach can be used to conduct this research. Counseling psychologists are well suited to establish and lead CBPR partnerships, yet there is a paucity of research to guide them in utilizing effective leadership approaches when conducting CBPR for reducing health disparities. Therefore, the aims of the present study were to (a) review existing leadership models applicable to conducting CBPR; (b) identify guiding principles of socially just leadership that emerged from the aforementioned review; (c) offer an example of how the guiding principles were used in a community–university partnership, highlighting challenges, solutions, and lessons learned; and (d) discuss the benefits of socially just leadership for counseling psychologists.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alisha H. Redelfs ◽  
Juan Aguilera ◽  
Sarah L. Ruiz

Many public health professionals (researchers and practitioners) do not regularly spend time writing. We often receive no formal training in the practices that lead one to become a productive writer. In addition, many internal (mental/emotional) and external (schedules/distractions) barriers make writing consistently even less appealing and may lead to a cycle of avoidance followed by binge writing. This commentary demonstrates how one writing group became an effective means of providing career and professional development. Each week for 9 months we held a 1-hour writing group meeting designed around a commitment to ground rules, accountability, training opportunities, and feedback. Our experiences suggest that engaging in a writing group can help us develop as writers by allowing us to learn new practices and skills. Adopting new practices like writing regularly for short blocks of time, in turn, led to benefits like reduced anxiety and increased productivity. In the process, we became better writers, reviewers, and mentors. We provide recommendations and resources for groups and individuals who are interested in improving their writing as an essential component of their continuing education and professional development. Whatever your professional role, using a writing group to become a more powerful and productive writer will make you more effective.


Author(s):  
Tracey Marie Barnett

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) embraces a partnership approach to research that equitably involves community members, organizational representatives, social workers, and researchers in all aspects of the research process. CBPR begins with a research topic of importance to the community and has the aim of combining knowledge with action and achieving social change. It is community based in the sense that community members become part of the research team and researchers become engaged in the activities of the community. Community–researcher partnerships allow for a blending of values and expertise, promoting co-learning and capacity building among all partners, and integrating and achieving a balance between research and action for the mutual benefit of all partners. Various terms have been used to describe this research, including participatory action research (PAR), action research (AR), community based research (CBR), collaborative action research (CAR), anti-oppressive research, and feminist research.


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