STAYING AT THE TABLE: BUILDING SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY-RESEARCH PARTNERSHIPS

Community-responsive scholar-activist research: conceptualizing capacity building and sustainability in a Northern California community-university partnership

We critically examine the ongoing development of a collaborative, responsive, activist research process between academics and farmworkers. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with community-based researchers and scholar-activists, we assess our team's understanding of community capacity building and research sustainability as the conceptual and operational definitions of these concepts lack academic consensus. The definitions we present reflect a 12-year effort to respond to community needs through interdisciplinary research, planning, and action. Our community-university team's evolving understanding of community capacity building and research sustainability is contextualized by our community-driven, community-responsive, and collaborative process. We discuss strengths and limitations encountered when conducting community-responsive, scholar-activist research and conclude by offering the lessons learned.

A conceptual model for establishing collaborative partnerships between universities and Native American communities

BACKGROUND

Collaborative partnerships are increasingly recognised as valuable and essential tools for improving community health.

AIM

To present the process used to establish a collaboration between a university and a community, including a description of the conceptual model that provided guidance for one such project.

DISCUSSION

While numerous studies explore the potential benefits of such efforts, few have addressed how to initiate partnerships. The initiation phase and formative work required are arguably the most crucial step, as they become the foundation on which all future efforts are built and through which sustainability is achieved.

CONCLUSION

These formative steps are essential when working with Native American communities, which experience severe health disparities, but for which limited initiatives are available for community health interventions.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

The approach used in this project can guide the establishment of a university-community collaboration, from initiation to evaluation.

"There's Gotta be Some Give and Take": Community Partner Perspectives on Benefits and Contributions associated with Community Partnerships for Youth

Successful community partnerships for youth are based on the premise that reciprocity exists between all parties, but to what extent is equal power actually present? The current investigation examines the benefits and contributions associated with partnerships from community partners' perspectives. Respondents from 15 different Connect to Protect® coalitions initiated by the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions were interviewed at the onset of their partnerships. Community partners asserted that their contributions to partnerships are more varied than researchers', yet they perceived that researchers acquire more kinds of benefits. Findings indicate nuances regarding reciprocity and power inequities between partners. Community partners' insights have implications for defining best practices within partnerships that benefit youth.

Community capacity building and sustainability: outcomes of community-based participatory research

BACKGROUND

For communities, the value of community-based participatory research (CBPR) is often manifested in the outcomes of increased capacity and sustainable adoption of evidence-based practices for social change. Educational opportunities that promote discourse between community and academic partners can help to advance CBPR and better define these outcomes.

OBJECTIVES

This paper describes a community-academic conference to develop shared definitions of community capacity building and sustainability related to CBPR and to identify obstacles and facilitators to both.

METHODS

"Taking It to the Curbside: Engaging Communities to Create Sustainable Change for Health" was planned by five Clinical Translational Science Institutes and four community organizations. After a keynote presentation, breakout groups of community and academic members met to define community capacity building and sustainability, and to identify facilitators and barriers to achieving both. Groups were facilitated by researcher-community partner teams and conversations were recorded and transcribed. Qualitative analysis for thematic content was conducted by a subset of the planning committee.

RESULTS

Important findings included learning that (1) the concepts of capacity and sustainability were considered interconnected; (2) partnership was perceived as both a facilitator and an outcome of CBPR; (3) sustainability was linked to "transfer of knowledge" from one generation to another within a community; and (4) capacity and sustainability were enhanced when goals were shared and health outcomes were achieved.

CONCLUSIONS

Community capacity building and sustainability are key outcomes of CBPR for communities. Co-learning opportunities that engage and mutually educate both community members and academics can be useful strategies for identifying meaningful strategies to achieve these outcomes.

Community-based partnered research: new directions in mental health services research

OBJECTIVE

Community-based participatory research has the potential to improve implementation of best practices to reduce disparities but has seldom been applied in mental health services research. This article presents the content and lessons learned from a national conference designed to stimulate such an application.

DESIGN

Mental health program developers collaborated in hosting a two-day conference that included plenary and break-out sessions, sharing approaches to community-academic partnership development, and preliminary findings from partnered research studies. Sessions were audiotaped, transcribed and analyzed by teams of academic and community conference participants to identify themes about best practices, challenges faced in partnered research, and recommendations for development of the field. Themes were illustrated with selections from project descriptions at the conference.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

Participants, representing 9 academic institutions and 12 community-based agencies from four US census regions, were academic and community partners from five research centers funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, and also included staff from federal and non-profit funding agencies.

RESULTS

Five themes emerged: 1) Partnership Building; 2) Implementing and Supporting Partnered Research; 3) Developing Creative Dissemination Strategies; 4) Evaluating Impact; and 5) Training.

CONCLUSIONS

Emerging knowledge of the factors in the partnership process can enhance uptake of new interventions in mental health services. Conference proceedings suggested that further development of this field may hold promise for improved approaches to address the mental health services quality chasm and service disparities.