‘Working relationships’ across difference - a realist review of community engagement with malaria research

Background: Community engagement (CE) is increasingly accepted as a critical aspect of health research, because of its potential to make research more ethical, relevant and well implemented. While CE activities linked to health research have proliferated in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs), and are increasingly described in published literature, there is a lack of conceptual clarity around how engagement is understood to ‘work’, and the aims and purposes of engagement are varied and often not made explicit. Ultimately, the evidence base for engagement remains underdeveloped. Methods: To develop explanations for how and why CE with health research contributes to the pattern of outcomes observed in published literature, we conducted a realist review of CE with malaria research – a theory driven approach to evidence synthesis. Results: We found that community engagement relies on the development of provisional ‘working relationships’ across differences, primarily of wealth, power and culture. These relationships are rooted in interactions that are experienced as relatively responsive and respectful, and that bring tangible research related benefits. Contextual factors affecting development of working relationships include the facilitating influence of research organisation commitment to and resources for engagement, and constraining factors linked to the prevailing ‘dominant health research paradigm context’, such as: differences of wealth and power between research centres and local populations and health systems; histories of colonialism and vertical health interventions; and external funding and control of health research. Conclusions: The development of working relationships contributes to greater acceptance and participation in research by local stakeholders, who are particularly interested in research related access to health care and other benefits. At the same time, such relationships may involve an accommodation of some ethically problematic characteristics of the dominant health research paradigm, and thereby reproduce this paradigm rather than challenge it with a different logic of collaborative partnership.

Conducting a Community Engagement Studio to Adapt Enhanced Milieu Teaching

Purpose: Barriers to implementing evidence-based practices occur at various levels. Stakeholder input is required to identify challenges specific to clinical practice settings, client populations, and service delivery approaches. The purpose of this project was to solicit feedback from stakeholders on the telepractice service delivery and implementation strategies proposed for a future study of enhanced milieu teaching (EMT) in rural counties. Method: A Community Engagement Studio was conducted with 11 caregivers of children with language delays living in rural counties. Caregivers and the researchers discussed early intervention service delivery for children with language delays in rural Oregon and the proposed telepractice EMT procedures. Researchers gathered feedback on three intervention components: session frequency and schedule, implementation strategies to encourage caregivers' use of EMT, and performance feedback techniques to teach caregivers. Results: Findings from the Community Engagement Studio led to four primary modifications to the telepractice EMT study protocol. The principal investigator increased available days and times for intervention sessions and added text-message reminders for parents. A survey was also added for caregivers to identify their preferences for additional implementation strategies (e.g., tip sheets, checklist, e-mailed session summaries) and graphic representations of performance feedback (e.g., bar graph, radial graph, mountain climber infographic). Conclusion: Community Engagement Studios are a promising method for increasing community engagement in clinical research and soliciting stakeholder feedback on evidence-based intervention adaptations. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.17774819

Learning about immigrant and migrant readers, transforming libraries: Spanish-speaking readers in North America

Drawing on data from the qualitative survey study of avid immigrant and migrant Spanish-speaking readers residing in Canada and the U.S., this paper looks at their use of libraries, specifically, in the context of leisure reading. Acknowledging a gap in current research on Spanish-speaking immigrants/migrants, the study focuses on avid lifelong readers rather than information seekers; achieves an understanding of their reading practices and interactions with libraries in the context of their pre-migration experiences; and highlights readers’ suggestions for the improvement of collections, spaces, services, and community engagement. Practical suggestions are made for public, academic, and special libraries.

Community engagement in Ebola outbreaks in sub-Saharan Africa and implications for COVID-19 control: A systematic review

Objectives There is a paucity of systematic data on the specific roles community engagement played in preventing and managing the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We assessed community engagement's role, benefits, and mechanisms to understand its effect on EVD case detection, survival, and mortality in SSA. Implications for COVID-19 prevention and control were also highlighted. Methods We systematically searched for articles between 2010 and 2020 in databases such as MEDLINE and EMBASE. Study types included were randomised trials, quasi-experimental studies, observational studies, case series, and reports. Results A total of 903 records were identified for screening. 216 articles met the review criteria, 103 were initially selected, and 44 were included in the final review. Our findings show that effective community involvement during the EVD outbreak depended on the survival rates, testimonials of survivors, risk perception, and community leaders’ inclusion. Community-based interventions improved knowledge and attitudes, case findings, isolation efforts and treatment. Conclusion Although the studies included in this review were of highly variable quality, community engagement lessons learned from Ebola outbreaks can be applied to COVID-19 pandemic control in SSA.

A Missed Opportunity for Community Engagement and Data Collection

This research is a case study that explores the dissemination and learnings of information which takes place in a diaspora organization in Toronto, the Kutchi Cultural Association. As a community of first-generation immigrants in Canada, the informal settings and learnings within this organization play an important role in their settlement process and build a sense of shared efficacy. The diaspora gatherings become the quintessential point of community engagement where knowledge is transferred and shared. This exploratory research discovers how information and learnings flow both within the organization as well as with mainstream institutions such as the libraries, archives, and museums. It highlights a missed opportunity for mainstream institutions of engaging such diaspora organizations that play a significant role in the sharing and gathering of information, albeit veiled and unaccounted for through official means and calls for more extensive research on the subject.

An Isolated and Behind-the-Scenes Work Called Conservation

Conservation is a type of work which requires specific skills, a lengthy experience, particular infrastructures, and arguably extensive time and money. In fact, preserving collections by managing all the aspects required is an important and mandatory task. However, as a developing country in tropical climate, Indonesia is still in a phase where financial aid, skillful experts, and moral support for preserving the cultural heritage are much less than needed. As a result of complex organizational dynamics, building a formal partnership for frequent collaborative conservation work between archives, libraries, and museums nevertheless is far from simple. On the other hand, engaging the community to participate in the practice is particularly challenging due to the nature of conservation work as an isolated activity within an exclusive ecosystem. This chapter aims to discuss whether developing community engagement and collaboration between LAM can serve as an alternative support to constructively improve current conditions and cope with the aforementioned issues.

Dimensions of Culturally-Intensive STEM Education

Disenfranchisement of indigenous Pacific voices from STEM limits self-determination and the development of Pacific-led solutions to regional challenges. To counteract this trend, Chaminade University's Inclusive Excellence program delivers culturally-sustaining STEM education focused on sense of belonging and family/community engagement. It seeks to authentically enculturate curriculum, pedagogy, and practice to privilege and separate Western and indigenous epistemologies and to provide deeply immersive non-academic support. This chapter discusses the imperatives for sustained, system-wide commitment to culture-based STEM education, theoretical and cultural frameworks guiding this paradigm, examples of IE program processes and practices, and a review of outcomes. Finally, next level challenges are considered: student experiences in structurally racist systems beyond the Pacific support bubble, tensions between providing opportunity and perpetuation of regional talent drains, and the implications of asking young scientists to balance cultural and professional identities.