Translating Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Principles into Practice

Individuals from two academic institutions and two community organizations partnered for an initiative to cultivate academic-community partnership infrastructures. They implemented CBPR workshops to help academic and community members develop a common language and understanding of the principles and practice. This presentation focuses on two Baltimore workshops. Participants representing research and community organizations took part; approximately half were community members. At workshop one (n=18), the accepted principles of CBPR were discussed. Building from that discussion, the partnership re-wrote each principle into interpretable sentences. For example, principle #3: “Facilitate collaborative, equitable partnership in all phases of the research” was revised to “Enable fairness and equality at each step of the research process”. Participants worked at workshop two (n=24) in small groups to identify what could be done to “put the principle into practice”. A range of actions were identified. For example, suggestions for principle #3 included defining how partners should address each other and developing a structured way to check-in with group members. Details regarding the principles and practices will be provided. Illustrative video segments from workshop two will be included and workshop evaluation results presented. The revised principles and practices can easily be used to facilitate conversations with academic and community members.