LI Course
CE Hours: 3 contact hours

Partnership: Community-based Public Health Caucus

Statement of Purpose and Institute Overview: The purpose of this Institute is to help participants who are familiar with and possibly have some experience in CBPR sharpen their data collection and analysis skills. A systematic approach to inquiry which equitably involves community and other partners throughout the research process and views action as an integral part of the endeavor, CBPR recently was identified by the IOM as one of eight new areas in which all public health schools should be providing training. The CDC, the NIH and a number of large and small foundations similarly have begun calling for proposals that incorporate a CBPR approach. These developments reflect in part growing concern that traditional outside expert-driven approaches often have proven poorly suited to researching and developing interventions aimed at many of today's most intractable health and social issues, e.g., homelessness, teen pregnancy, violence, environmental pollution. CBPR begins with questions that are important to communities; through the collaborative process, knowledge and action for social change to improve community health are marshaled. In carrying out a CBPR approach to inquiry, steps related to data collection and analysis often provide the greatest challenges. At its core, CBPR aims to ensure that all aspects of an investigation are conducted in partnership with communities, are systematic, participatory, and oriented toward meaningful social and community change. In public health, CBPR focuses on social, structural and physical environmental inequities through active involvement of community members, organizational representatives, and researchers in all aspects of the research process. CBPR has proven a promising approach for addressing such problems. To date, however, and despite growing interest, few schools or professional societies offer skill building and other training in this area. The complex ethical, methodological and other issues that arise in the course of CBPR projects, and the need for skills in ensuring that data are collected, analyzed, and understood by all in a way that is faithful to the investigation, particularly when working across cultures, underscores the importance of focused, competency based education in this area.

Session Objectives: Upon completion of this institute, participants will be able to: a. Define community-based participatory research and distinguish it from other forms of inquiry b.Identify three methods of data collection, i.e., focus group, mapping, and survey that can be used jointly by members of a partnership c. List the advantages and drawbacks of each of the three methods of data collection d. Identify the analysis and presentation implications for selecting each data collection method e. Identify three critical issues that arise when adopting and applying the principles of community-based participatory research for data analysis and collection f. Discuss the roles and approaches for scholars and community members in community-based participatory data collection, analysis and interpretation.

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing