scholarly journals Exploring community engaged research experiences and preferences: a multi-level qualitative investigation

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hae-Ra Han ◽  
Ashley Xu ◽  
Kyra J. W. Mendez ◽  
Safiyyah Okoye ◽  
Joycelyn Cudjoe ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Community engagement may make research more relevant, translatable, and sustainable, hence improving the possibility of reducing health disparities. The purpose of this study was to explore strategies for community engagement adopted by research teams and identify areas for enhancing engagement in future community engaged research. Methods The Community Engagement Program of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research hosted a forum to engage researchers and community partners in group discussion to reflect on their diverse past and current experiences in planning, implementing, and evaluating community engagement in health research. A total of 50 researchers, research staff, and community partners participated in five concurrent semi-structured group interviews and a whole group wrap-up session. Group interviews were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using content analysis. Results Four themes with eight subthemes were identified. Main themes included: Community engagement is an ongoing and iterative process; Community partner roles must be well-defined and clearly communicated; Mutual trust and transparency are central to community engagement; and Measuring community outcomes is an evolving area. Relevant subthemes were: engaging community partners in various stages of research; mission-driven vs. “checking the box”; breadth and depth of engagement; roles of community partner; recruitment and selection of community partners; building trust; clear communication for transparency; and conflict in community engaged research. Conclusion The findings highlight the benefits and challenges of community engaged research. Enhanced capacity building for community engagement, including training and communication tools for both community and researcher partners, are needed.

Author(s):  
Hannah Park ◽  
Jana Roberta Minifie

How universities adapt SL varies almost as much as the number of universities that offer those programs as SL can vary from volunteerism to internships. Seventy-seven SL administrators participated in a survey on the perceptions of the U.S. colleges on the definition of SL activities. The survey results indicated the participants less likely consider an academic community engagement project as a SL when it is paid by the community partner. This chapter examines the importance of including funded community engagement scholarship in SL activities. Following the survey results, the chapter further addresses how funding from community partners may strengthen the definition of SL by introducing The Design Laboratory, The Lab, from Memphis College of Art as a case study. The Lab was a student-driven design agency that provided SL activities to the students and communities. Most of The Lab's SL activities were funded by the community partners.


2021 ◽  
pp. 155545892110377
Author(s):  
Corinne Brion

Although family engagement is crucial to student and community outcomes, schools often alienate families who are not part of the dominant culture. As a result, school leaders need to become culturally proficient to systematically engage all families equitably regardless of their race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other cultural identifiers. This teaching case study raises issues related to cultural proficiency and family engagement. To help current and future educational leaders foster family engagement, I provide a cultural proficiency for family and community engagement framework. I also pose questions designed to trigger conversations and find practical solutions related to equitable family engagement.


2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 773-792
Author(s):  
Jayshree Thakrar ◽  
Deborah Kenn ◽  
Gary Minkley

Academics study the concept of community as a dynamic force and, increasingly, universities have become researchers, partners, and participants in community engagement. What is surprising is the lack of a definitional framework for the word “community”, and perhaps due to the use (one might say overuse) of the term in common parlance, no one questions what we mean by community.To engage a discussion without questioning what community means would be insufficient, if not presumptuous. Our goal is to explore. Equally presumptuous would be to define the dynamic, fluid, transforming concept of community. We aim to plumb the wisdom of our colleagues, community partners, students and mentors to bring meaning to the word community in all its richness and resilience.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. e46-51
Author(s):  
Shivali Misra ◽  
Alison Doucet ◽  
Juana Morales ◽  
Neil Andersson ◽  
Ann Macaulay ◽  
...  

Background: Global health education initiatives inconsistently balance trainee growth and benefits to host communities. This report describes a global health elective for medical trainees that focuses on community engagement and participatory research to provide mutually beneficial outcomes for the communities and trainees.Methods: An eight-year university–community partnership, the Chilcapamba to Montreal Global Health Elective is a two-month shared decision-making research and clinical observership experience in rural Ecuador for medical trainees at McGill University, Canada. Research topics are set by matching community-identified priorities with skillsets and interests of trainees, taking into consideration local potential impact.Results: Community outcomes included development of a Community Health Worker program, new collaborations with local organizations, community identification of health priorities, and generation of health improvement recommendations. Collaborative academic outputs included multiple bursary awards, conference presentations and published manuscripts.  Conclusion: This medical global health elective engages communities using participatory research to prioritise socially responsible and locally beneficial outcomes.


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Mott ◽  
Beth Martin ◽  
Robert Breslow ◽  
Barb Michaels ◽  
Jeff Kirchner ◽  
...  

The objectives of this article are to discuss the process of community engagement experienced to plan and implement a pilot study of a pharmacist-provided MTM intervention focused on reducing the use of medications associated with falling, and to present the research methods that emerged from the community engagement process to evaluate the feasibility, acceptance, and preliminary impact of the intervention. Key lessons learned from the community engagement process also are presented and discussed. The relationship building and planning process took twelve months. The RE-AIM framework broadly guided the planning process since an overarching goal for the community partners was developing a program that could be implemented and sustained in the future. The planning phase focused on identifying research questions that were of most interest to the community partners, the population to study, the capacity of partners to perform activities, and process evaluation. Much of the planning phase was accomplished with face-to-face meetings. After all study processes, study materials, and data collection tools were developed, a focus group of older adults who represented the likely targets of the MTM intervention provided feedback related to the concept and process of the intervention. Nine key lessons were identified from the community engagement process. One key to successful community engagement is partners taking the time to educate each other about experiences, processes, and successes and failures. Additionally, partners must actively listen to each other to better understand barriers and facilitators that likely will impact the planning and implementation processes. Successful community engagement will be important to develop both formative and summative evaluation processes that will help to produce valid evidence about the effectiveness of pharmacists in modifying drug therapy and preventing falls as well as to promote the adoption and implementation of the intervention in other communities.   Type: Original Research


Author(s):  
Tome' Awshar Mapotse

It is the supreme art of an action research practitioner to awaken the joy of tapping into professional development review of Technology Education (TE) knowledge with the teachers as co-researchers. TE has been introduced as a new subject nationally and globally just few decades ago. Teachers and learners are still experiencing hurdles in implementing TE. Most teachers are poorly grounded in pedagogy and content knowledge of Technology Education. This AR study does not blame the limited teacher training in TE, as its intention was to empower such. The study was underpinned by critical theory and following the AR strategies and Technology Education Cascading Theory was envisaged to be incorporated. Focus group (interviews) was used as the method to engage these TE teachers. From the findings of the study, it has been proven that the AR approach study can be used in didactic and pedagogic situation to emancipate unqualified and under qualified Technology teachers.


This chapter offers a cultural historical perspective on a multi-site dispersed community of collaboratively engaged university and community partners called University-Community Links (UC Links). The chapter begins by defining the concept of university-community engagement and moves to an ethnographic description of university-community engagement as a sociotechnical activity system. Viewing UC Links in this conceptual framework enables us to examine the educational activity between K-12 and university students and how localized activity is implemented and developed through collaborative activity among adults working together across the multiple boundaries of local institutions. The chapter explores how those localized efforts are both extended and limited, influenced, and enhanced by collaborative activity at much broader organizational and macrosocial planes of activity. This multi-layered analysis begins with the early experience of a young participant at La Clase Mágica, one of the two original Solana Beach, California sites out of which the broader UC Links initiative emerged.


This chapter introduces the authors' approach to university-community engagement as the process of collaborative learning among the young people engaged in afterschool activities run by University-Community Links (UC Links), along with the community and university people who have collectively engaged in designing, planning, and implementing those program activities. The prevalence of social displacement among community participants suggests a primary point for understanding the role that universities can play by engaging in the larger world. The chapter introduces the authors' ethnographic approach to the study of expansive learning among collaborating community and university partners as they confront dilemmas implicit in their engagement in joint activity and come to view their shared activity from an expanded perspective that transforms how they work together. The chapter then describes the historical emergence of UC Links, a California initiative that connects university and community partners in addressing pervasive social displacement and educational inequities.


Author(s):  
Heather J. Williamson ◽  
Carmenlita Chief ◽  
Dulce Jiménez ◽  
Andria Begay ◽  
Trudie F. Milner ◽  
...  

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (s1) ◽  
pp. 86-87
Author(s):  
Susan J Woolford ◽  
Ayse G. Buyuktur ◽  
Patricia Piechowski ◽  
Aalap Doshi ◽  
Erica E. Marsh

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: Background: The importance of engaging community in research and fostering community-academic research partnerships is increasingly acknowledged by Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) institutes. However, forming and maintaining such collaborations is often hampered by numerous challenges. It is critical to investigate the barriers to effective community-academic partnerships and to develop novel approaches to overcome these barriers. Objective: To explore community and academic perspectives of the challenges faced by community-academic research partnerships and potential solutions to these identified challenges. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Methods: In an effort to explore creative approaches to address these issues, the Community Engagement Program at the Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR), the CTSA site that serves Michigan, hosted a retreat to elicit the input of community members and academics from across the state. There was a mix of participants ranging from those with established community-academic partnerships to others who were new to community-engaged research and in early stages of forming partnerships. At the retreat, attendees were randomly divided into groups and asked to answer the specific question, “What are your barriers to partnering in research?” After each group identified a set of barriers and reported their findings to the entire room, attendees were asked to work again in their small groups to discuss potential solutions to these barriers. Ideas for solutions were also shared with the entire room. As part of the process of brainstorming about these questions, attendees were asked to document their ideas --- for both barriers and solutions --- on post-it notes which were then grouped by category. Artifacts from the retreat were saved digitally and transcripts made from these records. The findings were then analyzed to identify common themes. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Results: Eighty-six participants attended the retreat from across the state of Michigan. Forty-three represented community organizations that focus on addressing a wide array of social determinants of health issues. The remaining forty-three participants represented various academic institutions. The most frequently mentioned challenges to community-academic partnerships were related to communication and relationship building. To overcome barriers in these areas, participants noted that it is critical to collaboratively and explicitly identify shared goals, values and norms in the early stages of partnership development. This was closely linked to the need for additional funding to help foster and strengthen relationships by allowing partners to spend time together to both work and socialize informally, preferably in face-to-face settings. These were deemed crucial for building trust and common ground. In addition, more equitable funding and role distribution --- including shared leadership and governance of research projects between community and academia--- that recognizes and supports the true costs of involvement in research for community members was viewed as important. Other frequently noted issues on the part of community members were the need for greater respect for community partners and for more training opportunities to build capacity within communities to participate in research. Participants from academic institutions emphasized that the current requirements and timeline for promotion in academia make it harder for them to participate in community-engaged research, especially as early career researchers. They maintained that wider recognition of the value of community-engaged research is necessary and that this requires the support of home departments. Finally, participants underscored the importance of building infrastructure to better connect potential partners from the community and academia by making it easier to identify common interests and reciprocal strengths. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Conclusion: The problems faced by community-academic partnerships may be alleviated by working with community and academic members to identify potential solutions. Further work is needed to systematically examine barriers and the efficacy of solutions to enhance community-academic partnerships. Acknowledgements: We thank all attendees of the MICHR Community Engagement retreat for their participation in this activity that explored barriers to effective community-academic partnerships. Their honest and frank feedback was essential to broaching sensitive topics related to partnership development, and to identify realistic and practical solutions. We also thank all members of the planning committee and our colleagues in the Community Engagement Program for their work on bringing together community and academic members for this retreat. This project was supported by grant number UL1TR002240 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS).


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document