Cultivating an ecosystem: A qualitative exploration of sustainability in long-standing community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships.

Background: While sustainability is crucial to the success of community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships, there is a lack of conceptual clarity on what defines sustainability and what characterizes sustainability-promoting practices in long-standing (in existence ≥ 6 years) CBPR partnerships. Objectives: The aim of this article is to explore the definition of sustainability, as well as practices that influence sustainability from the perspectives of academic and community experts in long-standing CBPR partnerships. Methods: This qualitative analysis is part of Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success (MAPS), a participatory mixed methods validity study that examined "success" and its contributing factors in long-standing CBPR partnerships. Thematic analysis of 21 semi-structured interviews was conducted, including 10 academic and 11 community experts of long-standing CBPR partnerships. Results: The key defining components of sustainability we identified include: distinguishing between sustaining the work of the partnership and ongoing relationships among partners; working towards a common goal over time; and enduring changes that impact the partnership. We further identified strengthening and capacity building practices at multiple levels of the partnership that served to promote the sustainability of the partnership's work and of ongoing relationships among partners. Conclusions: Sustainability can be understood as supporting an ecosystem that surrounds the beneficial relationships between academic and community partners. Ongoing evaluation and application of practices that promote the sustainability of partnership activities and relationships may strengthen the long-term effectiveness of CBPR partnerships in advancing health equity.

Cultivating an Ecosystem: A Qualitative Exploration of Sustainability in Long-Standing Community-Based Participatory Research Partnerships.

BACKGROUND: While sustainability is crucial to the success of community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships, there is a lack of conceptual clarity on what defines sustainability and what characterizes sustainability-promoting practices in long-standing (in existence 6 years or longer) CBPR partnerships. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this article is to explore the definition of sustainability, as well as practices that influence sustainability from the perspectives of academic and community experts in long-standing CBPR partnerships. METHODS: This qualitative analysis is part of Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success, a participatory mixed methods validity study that examined "success" and its contributing factors in long-standing CBPR partnerships. Thematic analysis of 21 semistructured interviews was conducted, including 10 academic and 11 community experts of long-standing CBPR partnerships. RESULTS: The key defining components of sustainability we identified include: distinguishing between sustaining the work of the partnership and ongoing relationships among partners; working towards a common goal over time; and enduring changes that impact the partnership. We further identified strengthening and capacity building practices at multiple levels of the partnership that served to promote the sustainability of the partnership's work and of ongoing relationships among partners. CONCLUSIONS: Sustainability can be understood as supporting an ecosystem that surrounds the beneficial relationships between academic and community partners. Ongoing evaluation and application of practices that promote the sustainability of partnership activities and relationships may strengthen the long-term effectiveness of CBPR partnerships in advancing health equity.

Transforming the field: the role of academic health centers in promoting and sustaining equity based community engaged research.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) and community engaged research (CEnR) are key to promoting community and patient engagement in actionable evidence-based strategies to improve research for health equity. Rapid growth of CBPR/CEnR research projects have led to the broad adoption of partnering principles in community-academic partnerships and among some health and academic organizations. Yet, transformation of principles into best practices that foster trust, shared power, and equity outcomes still remain fragmented, are dependent on individuals with long term projects, or are non-existent. This paper describes how we designed our Engage for Equity PLUS intervention that leverages the leadership and membership of champion teams (including community-engaged faculty, community partners and patient advocates) to improve organizational policies and practices to support equity based CBPR/CEnR. This article describes the feasibility and preliminary findings from engaging champion teams from three very different academic health centers. We reflect on the learnings from Engage for Equity PLUS; the adaptation of the intervention design and implementation, including the development of a new institutional assessment using mixed research methods; and our organizational theory of change. In summary, our design and preliminary data from the three academic health centers provide support for new attention to the role of institutional practices and processes needed to sustain equity-based patient and community-engaged research and CBPR and transform the field.

Can everyone hear me? Reflections on the use of global online workshops for promoting inclusive knowledge generation.

Online research methods have risen in popularity over recent decades, particularly in the wake of COVID-19. We conducted five online workshops capturing the experiences of participatory health researchers in relation to power, as part of a collaborative project to develop global knowledge systems on power in participatory health research. These workshops included predominantly academic researchers working in 24 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Here, we reflect on the opportunities, limitations, and key considerations of using online workshops for knowledge generation and shared learning. The online workshop approach offers the potential for cross-continental knowledge exchange and for the amplification of global South voices. However, this study highlights the need for deeper exploration of power dynamics exposed by online platform use, particularly the 'digital divide' between academic partners and community co-researchers. Further research is needed to better understand the role of online platforms in generating more inclusive knowledge systems.

Family listening/circle program: The experience of community action projects to promote family and community wellness in three tribal communities in New Mexico.

Introduction: The Family Listening/Circle Program (FLCP) is a community-based participatory research (CBPR), culture-centered, intergenerational family strengthening program that was co-developed in partnership with the University of New Mexico's Center for Participatory Research (UNM-CPR) and three tribal communities (Pueblo of Jemez, Ramah Navajo, and Mescalero Apache) in New Mexico. The Family Listening/Circle Program brings together fourth and fifth graders, their parents, caregivers, and elders to reduce risky behaviors associated with the initiation of substance use among the youth, and to strengthen family communication and connectedness to culture and language as protective factors. Methods: The tribal research teams (TRTs) from each community worked with UNM-CPR to co-create, pilot, implement, and evaluate the tribally-specific FL/CP curricula centered in their own tribal histories, language, knowledge, visions, and actions for the future. A key component of the FL/CP involved the planning and completion of community action projects (CAPs) by participating families. During the final session of the program, the families present their community action projects on poster boards, with children leading the presentations. The TRTs and UNM team document narratives of what was shared and learned by the families. Results: The CAPs provide an empowerment and community benefit focus based on Paulo Freire's philosophy that people can become agents of change if they identify and work on issues that are important to them. The community action projects are also centered in Indigenous values and practices of reciprocity, responsibility, and being active members of the community. Discussion: The CAPs added unique contributions to the Family Listening/Circle Program as the participants' learnings were strengthened when they had the opportunity to give back to their communities. The CAPs were important to document as they illustrated the potential range of effectiveness with their capacity to empower participants to address challenges within their communities, strengthen cultural norms and values, and improve the wellbeing of community members.

Antiracism and Community-Based Participatory Research: Synergies, Challenges, and Opportunities.

Structural racism causes stark health inequities and operates at every level of society, including the academic and governmental entities that support health research and practice. We argue that health research institutions must invest in research that actively disrupts racial hierarchies, with leadership from racially marginalized communities and scholars. We highlight synergies between antiracist principles and community-based participatory research (CBPR), examine the potential for CBPR to promote antiracist research and praxis, illustrate structural barriers to antiracist CBPR praxis, and offer examples of CBPR actions taken to disrupt structural racism. We make recommendations for the next generation of antiracist CBPR, including modify health research funding to center the priorities of racially marginalized communities, support sustained commitments and accountability to those communities by funders and research institutions, distribute research funds equitably across community and academic institutions, amplify antiracist praxis through translation of research to policy, and adopt institutional practices that support reflection and adaptation of CBPR to align with emergent community priorities and antiracist practices. A critical application of CBPR principles offers pathways to transforming institutional practices that reproduce and reinforce racial inequities. (Am J Public Health. 2023;113(1):70-78. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2022.307114).

Trends in Controlled Vocabulary and Health Equity.

Medical librarians collaborate with physicians and other healthcare professionals to improve the quality and accessibility of medical information, which includes assembling the best evidence to advance health equality through teaching and research. This column brings together brief cases highlighting the experiences and perspectives of medical librarians, educators, and healthcare professionals using their organizational, pedagogical, and information-analysis skills to advance health equality indexing.

Exploring theoretical mechanisms of community-engaged research: a multilevel cross-sectional national study of structural and relational practices in community-academic partnerships.

BACKGROUND: Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) is often used to address health inequities due to structural racism. However, much of the existing literature emphasizes relationships and synergy rather than structural components of CBPR. This study introduces and tests new theoretical mechanisms of the CBPR Conceptual Model to address this limitation. METHODS: Three-stage online cross-sectional survey administered from 2016 to 2018 with 165 community-engaged research projects identified through federal databases or training grants. Participants (N = 453) were principal investigators and project team members (both academic and community partners) who provided project-level details and perceived contexts, processes, and outcomes. Data were analyzed through structural equation modeling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparison analysis. RESULTS: Commitment to Collective Empowerment was a key mediating variable between context and intervention activities. Synergy and Community Engagement in Research Actions were mediating variables between context/partnership process and outcomes. Collective Empowerment was most strongly aligned with Synergy, while higher levels of Structural Governance and lower levels of Relationships were most consistent with higher Community Engagement in Research Actions. CONCLUSIONS: The CBPR Conceptual Model identifies key theoretical mechanisms for explaining health equity and health outcomes in community-academic partnerships. The scholarly literature's preoccupation with synergy and relationships overlooks two promising practices-Structural Governance and Collective Empowerment-that interact from contexts through mechanisms to influence outcomes. These results also expand expectations beyond a "one size fits all" for reliably producing positive outcomes.

Community sharing: Contextualizing Western research notions of contamination within an Indigenous research paradigm.

Báa nnilah is a chronic illness self-management program designed by and for the Apsáalooke (Crow) community. Arising from a collaboration between an Indigenous nonprofit organization and a university-based research team, Báa nnilah's development, implementation, and evaluation have been influenced by both Indigenous and Western research paradigms (WRPs). Báa nnilah was evaluated using a randomized wait-list control group design. In a WRP, contamination, or intervention information shared by the intervention group with the control group, is actively discouraged as it makes ascertaining causality difficult, if not impossible. This approach is not consonant with Apsáalooke cultural values that include the encouragement of sharing helpful information with others, supporting an Indigenous research paradigm's (IRP) goal of benefiting the community. The purpose of this paper is to address contamination and sharing as an area of tension between WRP and IRP. We describe how the concepts of contamination and sharing within Báa nnilah's implementation and evaluation are interpreted differently when viewed from these contrasting paradigms, and set forth a call for greater exploration of Indigenous research approaches for developing, implementing, and evaluating intervention programs in Indigenous communities. (Improving Chronic Illness Management with the Apsáalooke Nation: The Báa nnilah Project.: NCT03036189), ClinicalTrials. gov: NCT03036189).

Direito humano à alimentação adequada e objetivos do desenvolvimento sustentável: interferências coletivas com crianças em periferias vulnerabilizadas / The human right to adequate food and sustainable development goals: collective interferences with children in vulnerable urban peripheries

Resumo Este artigo teve como objetivo analisar as relações entre o Direito Humano à Alimentação Adequada (DHAA) e os Objetivos do Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODS) que emergem de ações dialógicas com crianças e adolescentes em periferias urbanas vulnerabilizadas de São Vicente, São Paulo. Utilizando referencial metodológico das pesquisas participativas, a observação e registros de assembleias comunitárias e da parceria entre universidade pública e movimento social apontam para espaços de acolhimento às crianças e adolescentes que viabilizam leituras diagnósticas coletivas sobre a alimentação. Esses processos dialógicos permitem problematizar as dimensões do DHAA a partir da cadeia de produção, comercialização e consumo de alimentos, além da instabilidade a que essas crianças e adolescentes estão submetidos, em uma complexa rede de determinantes que produzem má-nutrição nos territórios onde vivem. Os resultados apontam que estas dimensões dialogam com todos os ODS, na medida em que demandam a sustentabilidade cultural, econômica, social e ambiental da alimentação. A parceria e a integração entre universidade e sociedade fortalece e potencializa os espaços de controle social e formação dos atores para a luta pelo DHAA, e pode também produzir efeitos de transformação nas desigualdades nos territórios e reconhecer a criança como sujeito de direitos com profundo rigor ético na construção de escutas inclusivas e de práticas qualificadas.

Abstract This study aimed to analyze the relation between the Human Right to Adequate Food (HRAF) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) resulting from a dialogic experience with children and adolescents in the periphery of São Vicente, São Paulo. Using the methodological framework of participatory research, community assemblies observation, and the partnership between the university and social movements point to a caring place for children/adolescents that enable collective diagnostic readings on food. Dialogical processes enable us to problematize HRAF dimensions based on the chain of food production, trading and consumption, and the instability to which those children/adolescents are subjected in a complex network of determinants that produce hunger and malnutrition in the territories in which they live. Results show that these dimensions dialogue with all the SDGs, as they demand cultural, economic, social, and environmental sustainability of food. The partnership and integration between university and society strengthens and enhances the spaces of social control and training of actors to advocate for the HRAF. It can also change inequalities in the territories and acknowledge children as subjects of rights with deep ethical commitment in the construction of inclusive listening and qualified practices.

'You want to deal with power while riding on power': global perspectives on power in participatory health research and co-production approaches.

INTRODUCTION: Power relations permeate research partnerships and compromise the ability of participatory research approaches to bring about transformational and sustainable change. This study aimed to explore how participatory health researchers engaged in co-production research perceive and experience 'power', and how it is discussed and addressed within the context of research partnerships. METHODS: Five online workshops were carried out with participatory health researchers working in different global contexts. Transcripts of the workshops were analysed thematically against the 'Social Ecology of Power' framework and mapped at the micro (individual), meso (interpersonal) or macro (structural) level. RESULTS: A total of 59 participants, with participatory experience in 24 different countries, attended the workshops. At the micro level, key findings included the rarity of explicit discussions on the meaning and impact of power, the use of reflexivity for examining assumptions and power differentials, and the perceived importance of strengthening co-researcher capacity to shift power. At the meso level, participants emphasised the need to manage co-researcher expectations, create spaces for trusted dialogue, and consider the potential risks faced by empowered community partners. Participants were divided over whether gatekeeper engagement aided the research process or acted to exclude marginalised groups from participating. At the macro level, colonial and 'traditional' research legacies were acknowledged to have generated and maintained power inequities within research partnerships. CONCLUSIONS: The 'Social Ecology of Power' framework is a useful tool for engaging with power inequities that cut across the social ecology, highlighting how they can operate at the micro, meso and macro level. This study reiterates that power is pervasive, and that while many researchers are intentional about engaging with power, actions and available tools must be used more systematically to identify and address power imbalances in participatory research partnerships, in order to contribute to improved equity and social justice outcomes.

Outcomes of a Community-Based Participatory Research Partnership Self-Evaluation: The Rochester Healthy Community Partnership Experience.

BACKGROUND: Community-based participatory research (CBPR) can effectively address health disparities among groups that are historically difficult to reach, disadvantaged, of a minority status, or are otherwise underrepresented in research. Recent research has focused on the science of CBPR partnership constructs and on developing and testing tools for self-evaluation. Because CBPR requires substantial investment in human and material resources, specific factors that support successful and sustainable research partnerships must be identified. We sought to describe the evolution, implementation, and results of a self-evaluation of a CBPR partnership. METHODS: Academic and community members of the Rochester Healthy Community Partnership (RHCP) and researchers from the University of New Mexico-Center for Participatory Research collaborated to evaluate RHCP with qualitative and quantitative research methods and group analysis. RESULTS: The self-evaluation was used to provide an overall picture of the "health" of the partnership, in terms of sustainability and ability to effectively collaborate around community priorities. RHCP members revisited the partnership's mission and values; identified associations between partnership practices, dynamics, and outcomes; and elicited insight from community and academic partners to help guide decisions about future directions and the sustainability of the partnership. Positive partnership dynamics were associated with perceived improvements in health and equity outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Although engaging in a comprehensive self-evaluation requires substantial investment from stakeholders, such assessments have significant value because they enable partners to reflect on the mission and values of the partnership, explore the history and context for its existence, identify factors that have contributed to outcomes, and plan strategically for the future.

Engage for Equity: Advancing the Fields of Community-Based Participatory Research and Community-engaged Research in Community Psychology and the Social Sciences.

Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR), as the most cited Community-Engaged Research (CEnR) approach in the health fields, mirrors community-psychology's long-term interest in participatory action research and community empowerment. This article introduces the Engage for Equity study, a long-term National Institutes of Health-funded inquiry to identify best partnering and collaborative practices that contribute to community capacity, empowerment and policy outcomes, and to long-term improved health and health equity. Four articles present facets of the study: psychometrics of partnering process and outcome measures, measures and outcomes of shared governance, and description of the CBPR Model as a new equity- and partnership based implementation framework; and as a tool for organizational learning and quality improvement. Finally a review of CBPR and CEnR in psychology offers recommendations for the field. Though focusing on CBPR and CEnR, Engage for Equity offers lessons for all forms of participatory action research.

Practicing Hope: Enhancing Empowerment in Primary Health Care through Community-based Participatory Research.

The World Health Organization's (WHO's) Declaration of Alma Ata in 1978 made Primary Health Care (PHC) the official health policy of all WHO member countries, stressing the importance of multisectoral collaboration and community empowerment as critical for delivering quality primary healthcare and public health services to achieve social justice and health equity. Over forty years later, a divide remains between seeing individual patients in the traditional biomedical model and addressing population-level social determinants of health. One promising approach for the intentional and active integration of multi-sectoral partnering practices and community empowerment into Primary Health Care is the use of community-based participatory research (CBPR). The power of CBPR lies in its systematic approach to facilitating equitable collaboration of partners based on community priorities and strengths and is increasingly recognized for improving health equity outcomes. This paper highlights the use of CBPR as a promising practice for healthcare organizations to bridge the gap between the traditional individual patient focus and the comprehensive primary healthcare approach from WHO. We use a narrative case study from A Ministry of Sharing (AMOS) Health and Hope, a PHC organization in Nicaragua, to illustrate the use of the CBPR model as an implementation framework that facilitated the transformation of structures, policies, and practices as AMOS created multi-sector partnerships and embraced community empowerment as part of its strategic and comprehensive approach to health equity.

Structural Community Governance: Importance for Community-Academic Research Partnerships.

Community based participatory research (CBPR) emphasizes democratic knowledge production and joint action between academics and communities to promote health equity through multilevel interventions. While much scholarship has expressed a commitment to collaboration between researchers and communities, effective methods of structural governance between community and academic stakeholders is under explored. We fill this gap by presenting a conceptual and empirical analysis describing multiple dimensions of structural governance in CBPR partnerships. First, we integrate public policy evidence on effective collaborative governance designs with the emerging literature in CBPR to create a conceptual model. Next, we utilize internet surveys of 179 federally funded community engaged research projects to construct and assess a measure of structural governance across multiple dimensions using confirmatory factor analysis. We explore whether antecedent factors such as the stage of the partnership and ethnic composition are associated with these dimensions and we examine associations for each of these components on positive perceptions of community involvement of research and collective empowerment. We develop a robust multidimensional measure of structural governance that is positively associated with perceptions of increased community involvement in research and collective empowerment.

CBPR Implementation Framework for Community-Academic Partnerships.

The Engage for Equity (E2) study is an intervention trial for community-academic research partnerships that seeks to improve partnering practices and health equity outcomes by providing community and academic partners with tools to enhance and advance power sharing and health equity. Twenty-five community/academic research teams completed a two-day training intervention where they were introduced to the CBPR Conceptual Model and corresponding applied tools to their partnerships. We report on team interviews conducted immediately after the training, where teams discussed opportunities and challenges using the CBPR Model as an implementation framework as they considered their own contexts, their partnering processes/practices, actions, and their desired outcomes. We applied Diffusion of Innovation theory to guide data collection and analysis; augmented by intent to use and collective reflection. Results pointed to the flexibility of the CBPR model, concrete use of tools (e.g., planning/evaluation), and broader use in inspiring collective reflection to improve partnering practices and inform equity values. As an implementation framework, the CBPR model incorporates collaborative processes and strategies to mitigate power differentials into key phases of implementation studies, adding factors central to health equity work, not existing in previous implementation frameworks.