Demystifying research and building community capacity to engage in CBPR as equitable partners

The Community Alliance for Research Empowering Social change (CARES) is an academic community based research partnership designed to train community members on evidence based public health and increase their research literacy to improve health outcomes for minority and medically underserved populations on Long Island.

Nineteen community members participated in the CARES training. The training consisted of 11 didactic training sessions and 4 experiential workshops taught by a multidisciplinary faculty from research institutions. Experiential workshops were designed to walk Fellows through the process of developing a pilot project including hypothesis generation, proposal development, obtaining IRB approval and project implementation. Workshops provided Fellows and Faculty with an opportunity to collaborate, and develop community driven CBPR pilot projects. Project teams (consisting of at least one Fellow and one Faculty member) responded to the CARES Request for Proposals (RFP).

Ten (50%) Fellows submitted pilot grant proposals in response to the CARES RFP; six (30%) conducted pilot CBPR projects. Four CARES Fellows developed a quantitative study, conducting door to door surveys in a predominately Hispanic community to elicit barriers to obtaining health care. Two CARES Fellows developed a qualitative study; conducting a 12 week (6 sessions) obesity intervention for black women; each educational session was followed by a focus group with participants to elucidate the contributing factors for the increased prevalence of obesity.

The CARES training program prepared Fellows to work with academic researchers, enhanced their capacity to utilize research knowledge and develop community driven, region specific and culturally appropriate strategies to address health disparities.