Developing a CBPR partnership with Chinatown restaurant workers: Lessons from the beginning of the story

Although community based participatory research (CBPR) increasingly is seen as a promising approach for use with immigrant and other low wage workers, adhering to CBPR principles in such efforts can pose substantial challenges along with the opportunities afforded. This presentation describes the formation and early implementation of a partnership between a Chinese community based organization, a local health department, and faculty and staff at two research universities to design and conduct an ecological study of working conditions and worker health and safety in San Francisco's 131 Chinatown restaurants. The birth and evolution of the partnership are discussed, as is the role of collaborative decision making in determining research questions and study design and methods. Restaurant worker involvement in questionnaire construction and sampling strategies through early focus groups, and the key role of a core group of workers on the project's steering committee are discussed, as are the challenges presented by the IRB process, linguistic and educational barriers, and ethical challenges faced in CBPR with an urban population that includes many undocumented workers. Early contributions of the project to individual and community capacity building are explored, as are lessons for public health professionals interested in forming CBPR partnerships with urban low wage worker communities.