Improving health through community-based participatory action research. Giving immigrants and refugees a voice.

Community-based participatory action research (CBPAR) gives people a voice in identifying and solving the health problems affecting their communities. Researchers from the University of Minnesota, health care professionals from West Side Community Health Services, and members of the Somali, Latino, and Hmong communities in St. Paul are using CBPAR to identify and study health-related problems in those communities and design initiatives to solve them.This article describes CBPAR and four projects that are currently underway within West Side's SoLaHmo Partnership for Health and Wellness: Caafimad- Salud - Kev Nyob Zoo.