Board evaluation of a community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnership process: The Detroit community-academic Urban Research Center

In order to maintain and build capacity for CBPR, community-academic partnerships need to evaluate the effectiveness of their participatory process. Information on how effective a CBPR partnership has been at achieving its intermediate process objectives can be used to strengthen the partnership's work toward achieving its ultimate goals of improving community health. The Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center (URC) is a CBPR partnership established in 1995 to conduct research on the social determinants of health, and develop interventions to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities affecting the residents of east, southwest, and northwest Detroit. The partnership process is coordinated through the URC Board, which engages partnership representatives from community-based organizations, health care providers, and academia in all aspects of the research and intervention process. This presentation will review: the conceptual framework for assessing the URC partnership; the results of a closed-ended survey questionnaire completed by all Board members in 2007; major themes (including Board capacity, resource allocation, policy engagement, partnership visibility and impact) identified in the analysis of these results; the Board's subsequent discussion of these results as part of its formative evaluation of the URC partnership process; and key actions identified by the Board to strengthen the partnership and its policy-related activities. We will also discuss lessons learned and implications for the use of closed-ended questionnaires as one component of a CBPR partnership evaluation.