Evaluation strategies for community and academic partner CBPR capacity: Findings from the Alliance for Research in Chicagoland Communities

A key principle of community-based participatory research is co-learning and capacity building of partners. The mission of the CTSA-funded Alliance for Research in Chicagoland Communities (ARCC) is to grow equitable and collaborative partnerships between Chicago area communities and Northwestern University (NU) for research that leads to measureable improvement in community health. ARCC's Steering Committee (SC) includes community-based organizations (12) and NU faculty (5). Working with an external evaluator, the SC, an evaluation subgroup, and ARCC staff conducted a collaborative, formative, and iterative evaluation of SC members' capacity to engage in research/CBPR and to work together to achieve ARCC's mission. In 3 phases, the evaluation assessed progress toward three goals: 1. Increase CBPR awareness, interest, knowledge and skills of SC members; 2. Increase integration of CBPR principles and practice into SC member priorities and programs; and 3. Increase SC member capacity to guide and develop ARCC to achieve its mission. Methods included participant-observation, surveys, focus groups, and interviews. The major findings (as of phase 2) are: a) Relationships between people are the foundation of the work of the ARCC SC. b) Money, time and staff are essential to doing CBPR work and are often scarce for community organizations. Sustainability is a concern. c) CBPR needs to receive greater recognition by the academic research community and those who support the work of community organizations. Each has multiple implications, which will be discussed by SC members and staff, along with how the SC is making improvements based on the findings.