Community Engaged Research Examples

Introduction

Engaging communities in research is increasingly viewed as the cornerstone to fostering a collaborative learning healthcare system (LHS) [1], which, in turn, can lead to effective translation of scientific health findings into clinical practice and ultimately improve the nation’s health. LHS is guided by the principle that both communities and health professionals need to be involved in healthcare and, as an extension, in healthcare research, to maximize not only the quality and relevance of the research but also the reach and dissemination of research findings [2]. Like LHS, community-engaged research (CE) stresses the importance of engaging diverse stakeholders in the research process [2-5]. For example, while community members

Two of our sites serve rapidly growing and diverse communities, and our third site is growing in diversity. Duval County, Florida population estimates is 937,934 people with over 30% identifying as Black. The largest county is Maricopa County, Arizona with over 4 million people with 6% Black. Olmsted County, Minnesota is the smallest county of the three sites with a population of 144,248 people and 6% identify as Black (i.e., African American, Somalian, and Caribbean) [8-12]. In Olmsted County, Minnesota there was a 125% change in number Blacks that reside in the county from 2000 this same trend was seen with Asian (56%), Hispanic (120%), and mixed race

Yet, the Act did not have a formal way to increase scientific literacy and provide a connection to health research and increasing wellness. Researchers designed new process to engage directly with community that involved not only basic community outreach but also incorporated reflective communication with the public to enhance dissemination, implementation, planning, and action related to health research. Using a partnered approach to research (partnership between the researchers and participants) promotes equal partnerships. This was evident in studies with mental health service users and non-users by changing dynamics of their relationships from subjective to objective. Strategies developed to promote bidirectional communication and stakeholder inputs into research projects include the Health Street model [13], “Boot Camp” Translation [16], Public Cafés [15], science cafés [12], and Community Engagement Studios [14]. Globally, these approaches are useful for prioritizing community needs, research goals, cost effective, and offer insight on a variety of individuals. Café Scientifique (scientific cafés) started as a grass root open community forums to discuss research, technology and other topics of interest to the public. The cafés connected the researchers with diverse stakeholders not limited to the community