Community Knowledge Project: Círculos de Acción, Círculos de Salud

In this paper we argue for a qualitative method of community-based participatory action that is scalable and topically open by design. Through the Community Knowledge Project, an informal, cross-disciplinary group of scholar-activists dedicated to social change, we have begun to initiate dialogues in Orange County, California, among community members regarding perceptions of their community assets and challenges with respect to health. Our guiding premise is the understanding that communities possess knowledge of equal or greater importance than university-generated “expert” knowledge. Only if both sources of knowledge are equally valued can true partnership, between the academy and the community, occur.

We hold informal but structured “círculos de acción,” reflexive dialogues that begin with community insider-outsiders (those who work but do not necessarily live in the community of interest) and extend in subsequent dialogues to community insiders (those who do live in the community of interest). Participants from the former are asked to invite a peer to successive dialogues, an effort that stems from the premise that repeated iterations begin to permeate deeper into the community. Using these methods, we argue that allowing community members to define themselves and their issues of interest is necessary for initiating true community-based collaboration. We present the application of these methods in two case studies: (1) Santa Ana, CA and (2) a community health assessment in Valencia, a neighborhood of Fullerton, California.