Community Building Community: The distinct benefits of community partners building other communities' capacity to conduct health research

OBJECTIVES: Academic partners typically build community capacity for research. We describe the benefits of a model where communities share their “best practices” for the purpose of building capacity in health research.  

METHODS: In the context of a grant designed to engage African American faith communities to address health disparities (FAITH in the Delta), two counties exchanged their “best practices” to conduct a collective health assessment. One county trained the other to create a county-wide faith-based network focused on promoting health, whereby the other county trained the other in the administration of a community-based health assessment tool. Both counties then worked together to systematically gather health assessment data in 26 churches (n=448) in their respective counties.  

RESULTS: There were numerous strengths in engaging communities to build each other’s capacity to conduct research. Communities were more receptive to capacity building efforts because of the other community’s ability to truly identify with them (i.e. understand the plight of their people); express genuineness (i.e. in contrast to academics, the community would still be there if there was no research project); convey legitimacy (i.e. communities are not expected to talk about health research, so when communities speak, communities listen); and provide insider knowledge on how to overcome challenges specific to working with communities. Communities building communities also served as a model of being and action (“they are like us”), resulted in the engagement of key community gatekeepers, and built fiscal capacity.  

CONCLUSIONS: Engaging communities with each other is a valuable model to build research capacity.