Oral

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) relies on the successful partnering of academic or other researchers with community-based organizations (CBOs) and leaders. What literature exists on the subject of academic-community research partnerships is largely limited to exploring partnership characteristics and achievements related to project goals. There is limited discussion of how well such research partnerships help both the academic and the community partner achieve their organizational missions and career goals. In order to achieve successful and sustainable academic-community research partnerships, relationship building, project process and outcomes, and exchange of resources and skills need to serve each partner’s organizational and own needs. In this session we will share the results from a qualitative study that highlights the complex benefits and risks of engaging in such work from both the academic and community perspective. Next a community-engaged academic researcher will provide creative solutions to address the tensions facing such scholars as they navigate faculty roles and rewards in higher education. The next panelist will present from efforts to create a framework and survey instrument to assess CBO research capacity in order to understand and enhance their research infrastructure in the context of an academic-community research partnership. The last panelist will present findings from a CBPR training initiative that demonstrates that mutual engagement of researchers and community members in a co-learning environment can alter perceptions of trust, motivate relationships, and remove barriers to engaging in CBPR. This session will address how to best “act local” by achieving equitable and ethical research partnerships.

Session Objectives: (1) Describe the organizational and personal challenges experienced by academic and community partners engaged in CBPR and other research projects. (2) Identify ways academic-community research partnerships can contribute to the organizational and individual advancement of both academic and community participants. (3) Discuss how healthy academic-community partnerships are essential to achieving equitable and ethical CBPR research processes.