The Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center (URC) is a community-based participatory research partnership that was founded in 1995, with core funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The partnership includes representatives from community-based organizations, academia, a local health department, and an integrated managed care system. A participatory, formative evaluation of the Detroit URC has been underway since 1995. Results to date are based on 5 years of data from in-depth qualitative interviews of URC Board members, mailed surveys, meeting minutes, and field notes. The Detroit URC is a strong partnership that has achieved many of its goals, including the receipt of over $23.5 million in funding for basic and intervention research projects in priority health areas. URC Board members have identified a number of facilitating factors for their growth and achievements, such as strong processes and infrastructure that facilitate URC work, the amount of trust between partners, and the level of knowledge and talent of the community members involved. Board members have also identified a number of ongoing challenges for this work, such as time constraints, achieving a balance between research needs and community interests, and negative incentives from organizational reward structures. The Detroit URC represents a community-based, participatory approach to identifying community health concerns and investigating potential solutions. Its evaluation results should be of interest to the growing number of coalitions and partnerships that are working to improve health in their communities. See www.sph.umich.edu/urc
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this panel overview presentation, the participant should be able to: 1) understand the design and methods used to evaluate a community-academic participatory research partnership; 2) identify the major achievements and impacts of the Detroit Urban Research Center and several facilitating factors that have been identified in regard to these achievements; and 3) identify some of the ongoing challenges and barriers that both community organizations and academics experience when attempting to engage in community-based participatory research.
Keywords: Community-Based Partnership, Evaluation
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
Disclosure not received
Relationship: Not Received.