141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

290777
Research capacity building in diverse communities: The art of community engaged pedagogy

Monday, November 4, 2013 : 4:50 PM - 5:10 PM

Carolyn Rubin, EdD, MA , Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), Boston, MA
Background: Engaging communities in research involves recognizing the power imbalances that exist between academic investigators and community partners. Capacity-building training programs have emerged as a response to this power dynamic. The Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute, in cooperation with Harvard Catalyst, Boston University and two community partners, the Center for Community Health, Research and Services and the Immigrant Services Providers Group/Health created “Building Your Capacity” (BYC) an educational intervention designed to build community partner knowledge and skills to effectively engage in academic-community research partnerships. Methods: Formative research (interviews and a survey) was used to develop the curriculum for three different cohorts. A total of thirty community-based organizations participated in BYC. Results: The formative research was used to help develop and refine the curriculum and adapt it to different communities. Each curricular iteration, which was framed by institutional opportunities and constraints, led to different outcomes for each cohort of BYC. Results from each cohort were built upon in ways that helped to strengthen the program and better meet community needs. Conclusions: In illustrating these different approaches to capacity-building, this presentation demonstrates that developing training programs for community partners cannot take a one-size-fits-all approach and troubles whether one training model can adequately respond to local community needs.

Learning Areas:
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Explain how formative research is used to create curriculum for diverse community partners Identify different curricular models to engage community partners in research

Keywords: Community Capacity, Community Education

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Between 2009-2011, I led a community-based participatroy research team in the development of "Building your capacity", a training program that supports community partners to participate more effectively in community engaged research partnerships with academic investigators. Through this experience, I developed an educational approach called "community engaged pedagogy."
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.